


Desire Written in Olive

by AmbitiousWitch, Doodlegirl1998



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Tony Stark, Citizenship Marriage, Don't Like Don't Read, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Fairy Tale Elements, Happy Marriage Charade, Mind Control Aftermath & Recovery, Mind Rape, Not Pepper Potts Friendly, Not Wanda Friendly, Post-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Protective Vision (Marvel), Team Cap is full of shit, Unhealthy Relationships, Unreliable Narrator, Wanda Maximoff is Not a Kid, very unreliable
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-07
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2018-11-08 18:38:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 47,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11087601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmbitiousWitch/pseuds/AmbitiousWitch, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doodlegirl1998/pseuds/Doodlegirl1998
Summary: If you want to atone for your wrong doings you have to:a) Do better.b) Accept your responsibilities.c) Look around and see how others take the blame for you.If you are not doing better but justnot doing anything. Are you really trying to atone?Trailer:here.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> **AmbitiousWitch:** Welcome to the new story, people! I’m very excited for working with Doodlegirl1998 and this story has been a little of guilty pressure for us while writing our owns. We are not leaving our current stories of course. Neither this is conected to them. Enjoy!
> 
> Music for this chapter: [here](https://youtu.be/RzCIKXJTyFE)

* * *

 

Trish was sure that she had seen that woman before.

She had been going for two weeks to help in a community center that had regrouped and tried to help Kilgrave’s old victims when she saw her. Trish was seeing a therapist of her own and she couldn’t help but stare.

_Maybe she had just one of those faces. No I’ve definitely seen her before… but where?_

She spent time there to not think about Jessica and her friends running around for the city with all the political and social repercussions against vigilantes after Captain America had decided to become in a international criminal.

But that woman always came and left when Trish did.

_Maybe she was from another support group? From the radio? Another one of Jess’s old clients?_

The woman looked young, in her late twenties by Trish’s guess. She was blessed with high cheekbones, gorgeous green eyes, and dark hair that curved around her face and stopped at her shoulders. If her clothes were anything to go by she appeared to be very rich, although she wasn't obnoxious with it.

The designs she wore were discreet high class designer wear usually accessorized with dark silver jewellery which seemed to be a try to dissimulate the curiously bright platinum gold wedding and engagement rings on her hands.

The suited round faced man that always accompanied her–a bodyguard apparently– was very vague and regarded her with great suspicion when Trish asked him about her. From his answers she gathered that the lady had gained her wealth through marriage.

Trish watched her repeatedly enter her therapy group with a great deal of intrigue. She couldn't help but wonder what a well off woman like her would be doing in this community, of all places. However Trish was adamant that she would reserve her judgements until she had spoken to the lady.

It was one of these nights that Trish finally managed to corner her and ask her what exactly she was doing in this community helping her. It was then that she asked who exactly the woman was.

“I just want to help, Ms. Walker,” the young woman had answered while her companion, called her with a firm _ma’am_ and levelled her with a cautious look _._

“But why here of all places Mrs…” Trish trailed off pointedly to give the lady a chance to reveal herself.

 The woman smiled, “Mrs Carbonell.”

"Mrs. Carbonell,” Trish gave her a fake smile. “I’m sure that you have given many generous donations.”

Trish didn't want to judge people before knowing them.

However there was something about that woman… She just felt _wrong_.

“It’s my husband’s money,” Mrs. ‘Carbonell’ answered with a tense smile. “I wanted to do better by myself too.” The brunette looked at her bodyguard. “I’m sorry, Ms. Walker, I have to go.”

At that smile, a light bulb lit up in Trish’s mind. She had _definitely_ seen that smile before.

“Yes, I remember that your husband did give many donations for the victims of the enhanced community,” the blonde snarled, ”Mrs. _Stark_.”

Mrs Stark stiffened and her green eyes turned to chips of ice as she stared at Trish, unrepentant for both her lie and being found out **.**

 **“** Anonymity is key in these sorts of places, you understand Ms. Walker.”

“I would like to know what you, of all people, are doing here.”

The woman stiffened and gave a glance to her bodyguard before sighing, “My husband was a victim of repeated enhanced mental attacks.” Trish stiffened at the reminder of Kilgrave. “I would like to help him and I figured there would be no one more qualified than you to do so…”

Mrs. Stark trialled off deliberately. Trish knew that she was being manipulated into helping Mr. Stark, and despite this she didn't fight it.

_f I could help Iron Man I'll do it, no matter how on edge I'm feeling around his wife._

“I can't help you more than any other relative,” Trish sighed. “It would be better if he was here himself. I didn't break the power that my attacker had. My sister did.”

“Where can I find her?” Mrs. Stark’s voice almost trembled at that question.

Trish narrowed her eyes at her.

“I’m not sure if Jessica can help you. Kilgrave was a particular telepath but every enhanced individual is different as well as every victim.” The blonde took one of the plastic chairs that they were sorting and piled it with the others. “And besides, I find it strange that your husband’s attacks were never news. He has been open with most of the events in his life; I remember he told the public about your wedding.”

The bodyguard gave his employer another strangely concerned look, even when she wasn't looking at him at all. Her pretty face was tense and her fists were closed in her sides. The big man in the suit looked ready to jump on her.

 _But it is to protect her… Or to protect_ me _?_

Trish had a strange feeling it was the latter of her suspicions.

Therefore it felt a little anticlimactic when Mrs. Stark only inhaled deeply and looked at Trish with glassy eyes.

“It’s complicated,” the brunette sighed whilst she waved a calming hand to her bodyguard.

“Oh, I'm sure of that,” Trish replied with a thin smile. “I don't think that can help you, Mrs. Stark.”

“But-” the young woman protested.

“Wanda,” the man in the suit snapped giving her a harsh look, it was the kind of look that you give to a child when they bother someone too much. “We should leave. Thank you for your time Ms. Walker.” He nodded briefly to Trish as his boss pressed her lips in a line.

“I never expected you would be one to ignore someone when they needed help Ms. Walker especially not in this sort of matter.” Wanda’s voice was tight and clipped as she rose to her feet.

Trish tried to not feel the instinctive chill that ran up her back as she watched Wanda Maximoff-Stark rise to leave.

“Wait!” Trish exclaimed before sighing to herself. Mrs. Stark paused by the door and turned to her. “I can only do so much without him present of course, but do you know how the,” Trish cringed and paused briefly, “repeated mental attacks happened?”

Wanda nodded, the bodyguard shot her a brief narrow eyed glare.

“You’ll need to tell me what happened from the start. How the attacks happened and the context surrounding them. Don’t leave anything out. I’ll need to know as much as possible so I can at least try to help. It would be more ideal if he was actually here… but I’ll do what I can.”

Trish was rewarded with a small genuine grin from Mrs. Stark which revealed all her unsettlingly shark like teeth. she turned to her bodyguard and spoke in a commanding hard tone. “Outside Hogan.”

The bodyguard, Hogan obeyed. He wordlessly shut the door behind himself whilst Wanda picked up her chair and perched on it.

“It all began when I got engaged, it was by no means an expected time or place…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> b>Doodlegirl1998: Hey guys :) both myself and Ambitious Witch decided to present this prologue in Trish’s point of view. This gives you the chance to judge Wanda through the eyes of someone she doesn't know well which we thought would add intrigue.


	2. The Price

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **AmbitiousWitch:** Hey guys, a little note before you start: the unreliable narrator for Wanda’s POV is both in and out universe. We work here with **third person limited** but there are things that Wanda doesn't tell Trish for obvious reasons.
> 
> Okay, edited! Thanks to our beta firelord65.
> 
> By the way, in the edition we change a significant thing: Sokovia was not the one that was made into a comet by Ultron. It was [its capital, Novi Grad](http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Novi_Grad) which makes more sense than a hole country destroyed.

_May 2015_

_Twenty six._

_Twenty six years old_ , Wanda thought looking her own face in the mirror of her new room in the Avengers Compound. _I am now the oldest twin…_ _this is the first birthday I am going to be alone... without Pietro._

At first she didn't want to accept that her twin was really gone. It was too much for her to bear , but Clint and Steve took her under their wings and told her that she would have a family with them. She accepted because, what else could she have done? Thanks to Stark, her whole family was gone.

“Wanda!” Steve called her from the lower floor. “Come to the kitchen, breakfast is ready.”

Wanda sighed, fixing her hair in a ponytail. She wore just a long t-shirt and jeans – she was always making an effort to not remind herself where the clothes came from – and put on her sweetest smile.

The rest of the Avengers were in the kitchen. Sam seemed to be in the middle of baking something, judging by the way he was eying the contents of the oven like a hawk, and Steve was serving coffee. Romanoff was also there, on the edge of the table, drinking what it seemed to be tea with a deadpan expression.

“Good morning, guys,” Wanda chirped to the others whilst she perched next to Clint. He smiled at her and gave her a peck in the cheek when she settled fully into her seat next to him.

“Happy birthday, kid.” Wanda smiled at him. She knew that Clint had just come from Iowa to see her. His wife was having a boy in just one month - who would have the name of her brother with Wanda’s permission - and he had just two days left in the Compound.

“Happy birthday, Wanda,” Steve said with his handsome face grinning brightly. Sam also gave her a gentle one and a nod as he put a large, decorative cake in front of her. Vision –who was surprisingly sweet despite the _person_ that had created him– gave her a shy smile and congratulations for her special day.

Wanda thought that she would start crying in any minute. Her friends, her dear friends, were so kind to her.

“Thank you,” she said while trying to control the trembling of her voice. “Thank you so much guys.”

With the Avengers’ congratulations the young woman felt less depressed, less lonely. But suddenly when they were finishing singing her happy birthday, all the cheerfulness died with the entrance of her most unwanted guest.

“Good morning, Tony,” Romanoff spoke for first time that morning and Wanda felt a chill running down her spine.

“Tony!” Steve said with a concerned look. ”Are you okay?”

Wanda looked up from from her piece of cake. Stark had sat down next to Natasha and he really looked _horrible_ : pale, with big bags under his eyes. His hair was a mess, apparently due to repeatedly running his hand through it, which he did two times while ignoring the concerns of the other Avengers.

“Can I have a cup of coffee?” He whispered to Vision. The android smiled at him kindly while leaning on the kitchen.

“How long have you been awake?” Natasha asked him narrowing her eyes.

“I’m fine,” Stark murmured with a false smirk.

“Boss has being awake for seventy two hours, Ms. Romanoff.” Friday suddenly spoke up, making Wanda jump and apparently doing the same to Stark, who then closed his eyes and groaned “ _Mute”_.

“Seventy two hours?! What have you being doing, Stark? Have you and Miss Potts been busy?” Clint asked with a playful wink. Stark just gave him a deadpan glare.

“We are not together anymore.” He said. With that, he got up and started to walk around the kitchen.

Wanda wanted to roll her eyes. Stark was always trying to start drama.

 _Trust him to want to make drama on_ my _birthday._

“I’m sorry, Tony, we didn’t know about that,” Steve said in a soft amiable voice. Stark ignored him.

“I have received more than sixty calls in the last three days,” he begun to talk. “Most of them were about Sokovia but I’ve also received calls from many governments and authorities in Africa.”

“What?” Steve asked, his face going pale.

“Before Ultron decided to destroy the Earth because some twisted neo-Old Testament ideology, I ordered Maria Hill to release Maximoff’s files - for both she and her brother - to every police station in Europe and Africa,” Stark explained coolly titling his head at Wanda.

“What?” Clint shouted. “Why would you do that?!”

“How could you put her in that kind of danger?!” Steve stood up. Wanda was amazed by how his previous concern for the man had flipped; he looked at that moment like he wanted to chop Stark’s head off.

Wanda could honestly say that if Steve chose that course of action, she’d happily help him do so.

“Oh, I don't know, maybe she was out working with the enemy? Maybe the public was in danger? Maybe there were robots running around two continents with vibranium weapons all because of your resident witch’s mind fucking.” Stark drawled this like he was explaining something to a particularly stupid and irritating child.

Tony sighed and paused for a moment before pinched his eyes together. Then he looked at Wanda with a harsh intense stare seemed to see into her very soul.

“I get that I am meant to believe you’re good now. But forgive me if I don't trust the witch who not only mind fucked with my teammate's heads but did the same to a entire country.”

“That’s harsh.” Steve intergected. “Goodness sake Tony it's her-”

“I don't give a damn what special day it is for her. But if you insist, I have a present for her too.” He directed a sneer at her cake.  His expression  was filled to the brim with jealousy. Stark stalked over to her and placed a small box in her hand. Wanda was about to throw right back at his annoying face. However her curiosity stopped her. She opened it and almost fainted when she saw that there was an engagement ring inside.

Stunned, she looked up and stared at Stark who was standing in front of her. “These are the facts.” Tony glanced away from her and looked to Steve, responding in a chilly tone that set Wanda’s teeth on edge. His voice gained a harder edge upon looking back to her.  “I wouldn't be offering you this unless there was any other option but Sokovian Officials are baying for your blood. You were Hydra and you killed for them. Your actions lead to the destruction of your home country when you sided with a dangerous murderbot. Despite their people's gratefulness for your change of heart, they will want you extradited back to your country. Then they will execute or, more likely, imprison you for life with charges of mass murder and terrorism.”

“What?!” Clint thundered. “But she saved everyone and got them out!”

“If not for her actions, Novi Grad wouldn't be big crater but the capital of Sokovia.” Clint looked like he was about to protest again. “Look, I’m not saying I’m blameless in this- far from it- but we need a way to keep Wanda in the country and a visa is an impossibility with her record. The only option really is… this.”

Tony pointed to the ring Wanda was transfixed with.

“What? No!” Steve looked increasingly desperate. He moved closer to Wanda.

“Wanda,” Tony gritted his teeth as if to steel himself for what he was about to say. “You will have to marry me if I have any hope of keeping you in the country. I can take back the orders and say that it was a mistake, but the public is another thing. You're here illegally I have spoken to my legal team and that is the only way we can really this.”

“Marriage!” Steve jumped from his seat, stunned at the very suggestion. “Tony-”

“Do you really think I'd ask Maximoff to marry me if there was any other option? I don't see you jumping to marry her Rogers - why should you? You're with Carter - another one which ok a little creepy but still none of my business. Sam doesn't have the political power or pull I do. Vision is a new form of life - he's a kid. Rhodey has a girlfriend and Natasha is a defected Russian assassin so unless you want to give up your relationship with Carter Junior and marry Medusa for me what other options are there?!"

Wanda bristled at the nickname and shot him a glare. _How I wish I could turn you into stone… Stark don't forget what I can do to you is much worse._

"You will be marrying a child Stark!” Steve fumed.

“A child?” Stark snorted, ”she's _twenty six,_ the hell are you talking about?”

“She's twenty years younger than you. It's disgusting!" Clint said, furious. He had a little girl, Wanda remembered, of course, what father wouldn't be worried about old, rich men taking advantage of young women.

But Wanda was not like other young women.

“My mother was twenty years younger than my father and their relationship worked.” Tony sneered. “To everyone’s surprise, including mine,”

Wanda still had yet to say anything to Tony's offer, her eyes were still stuck on the huge but elegant ruby and diamond engagement ring Tony had given to her.

Only that she knew it was originally meant to be for Pepper Potts.

The happiness that had filled her morning had just vanish as a sweet dream. Now, Stark was reminding her that she was not a normal girl hanging up with her friends but a woman that would be persecuted because the world couldn't take the existence of her gifts. He had broken her short new found peace and was essentially blackmailing her into marriage.

Wanda didn't have an option. She realised it while looking at the man with burning rage. Just a call and she would be in a cell. He would let the sharks come for her because he didn't care about her safety, not like Steve and Clint, who were now trying to comfort her. Was she really breathing that hard? Closing her eyes and gritting her teeth she looked up to the man that was – _again_ – the destroyer of her happiness.

"Yes." Wanda plucked the ring from her hand and secured it on her finger. "If this is the only way to keep me away from Sokovia... then yes,  I'll marry you."

"Don't feel pressured into anything Wanda." Steve directed gently to her.

"I'm sure Steve... we won't do anything I'm not comfortable with." Wanda said lowly as she admired her new ring.

"How do we know that?" Clint murmured looking at Tony. The billionaire gave him a cold glare.

“I’m not interested in people that hate me or have tried to kill me, Barton.” Tony answered in a droll voice whilst he rolled his eyes. “You don't have to worry about your _precious_ Maximoff’s virtue.”

Wanda could hear the truth of the statement clearly even without her gifts. However, she tried to not be offended by his words and failed _miserably._

Natasha looked at Clint like she wanted to stab him for even implying such a thing.

"Are you sure this is the best option Stark?" Natasha gave Wanda a look full of distrust.

"Unless you want her extradited” he said harshly. "They will discover the rest of her shady past sooner or later."

The spy nodded, narrowing her eyes almost analytically at him before relaxing backwards into her seat. Wanda shot her a glare. She knew that Natasha had suspected that she had used her gifts on Stark to him to propose her.

"I'm not that person anymore,” Wanda said. Natasha gave her a cold accusatory glare at those words. “Why would I want to get Stark of all people to marry me?”

"Oh, I don't know, you tell me. But I have an idea of the little game you are playing. " Natasha spat. 

  
"Natasha, that’s enough-" Steve protested.   
  
"You, the powerful young heroine saving the big bad Stark that created Ultron, giving him your love and forgiveness that redeems his damned soul." Her bitter smile said the rest of what she was thinking for her. Wanda could almost feel ghost of Bruce Banner floating in the room at her words although, from what she knew, the man wasn't dead but his suffering at her hand was forgotten by all his team - all apart from Natasha and Stark.

"Nat, please." Stark said softly, but Natasha stood up and glared at Wanda.

"It's not Tony who you should be worrying about. It's her. She's the one who has shown she hasn't grasped the concept of consent." Natasha hissed before she stalked from the room.

Stark looked at her going and sighed like a man who was preparing himself to be executed. He started to move around away from the group, his hands that time clenched in fists instead of being in his pockets.

“When things calm down… No one will recognize you. The terrorist Wanda Maximoff should have died in Sokovia. Until then, you have to keep a low profile. Keep yourself from doing something stupid that could attract the media of talking about you. They always forget if they have a uglier or bloodier scapegoat to blame.” He finished with a bitter tone that gave the young woman chills.

Wanda took and deep breath and stood up. She  walked to where Stark was, raising her chin and taking advantage of their similar heights.

_I am not afraid of him, not anymore._

Her eyes were firm on his and she even let the red bleed over her natural green.

“I know why are you doing this, Stark,” Wanda hissed whilst obliterating his personal space. She knew he was instantly on edge. _Good, be very afraid._ ”You don’t want to protect me. You are doing this to keep me in check. I _know_ that you hate me,” her voice was filled with venom.

She was not afraid of him.

She was _not_ afraid of him.

 _But–_ to her surprise, Stark didn't back off. He just gave her a sadistic smile, raising her chin even more with his fingers.

“You can count on that, _witch.”_

 

* * *

 

“The wedding came soon after that- Natasha didn’t show of course. Her tantrum showed exactly what she thought of Tony and I getting married so I didn’t expect her too.” Mrs. Stark sighed.

“Must have been a big event,” Trish commented with a dry smile. Mrs. Stark gave her a bitter one in return.

“It was small, uncomfortable, and not wanted by any of us,” her voice had a dark sort of humour, like after all that time she had just seen the humour of her situation now.  “We moved to his parent’s old house in Long Island. The press had to believe we were madly in love, so we had to at least stand being in the same room as each other.”

“Well, he married you to protect you,” Trish passed her the chair that they were sorting out so she could sit down.

Wanda let out a bitter laugh.

Trish looked at Mrs. Stark’s sad smile. She couldn’t help but wonder what Wanda’s real feelings were about the event.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **AmbitiousWitch:** Hope you enjoy the first chapter. The idea of the citizenship marriage with this two was born of a thread that I begun in Tumblr after all the shit that the antis put on Tony in regards of Wanda’ “house arrest”. That he was xenophobic for striping an immigrant of her rights and freedom blah, blah, _fucking blah._ Then we said: okay, what if he cared too much about that? What if he had married her to give her the citizenship?
> 
> So, when we begun to work for this story we realized that the Whedon or the Marvel Creative Team just said ‘fuck it” and pulled [Aborted Arc](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AbortedArc) with Wanda making her an Avenger and Tony an outcast in TVTropes is even mentioned that he doesn't even _know_ why she hates him–besides the fact of being an Avenger and the ex CEO of SI I guess –. When we got CA: CW, Wanda is already a [Karma Houdini](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KarmaHoudini) mixed with [ Idiot Houdini](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IdiotHoudini) and [Good Costume Switch](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GoodCostumeSwitch) (and the costume isn’t even good) and [Easily Forgiven](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EasilyForgiven) as it says in the site itself:
>
>>  
>> 
>> [In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Stark and Banner leave the team in guilt, while Wanda, an ex-Hydra agent who mind-raped Stark and Banner into building Ultron and Hulking out, isn't blamed by anyone, for anything, to any degree. Instead she gets enlisted into the Avengers.](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EasilyForgiven)  
> 
> 
> But this is not the cherry on the top of the cake. Nope, Markus and Mcfeely (the writers of CW) were even more lazy, not even Bucky Barnes was saved as her. Quote from the audio commentary:
>
>> Q: Why was it necessary to put the winter soldier back on ice?
>> 
>> A: Well because, I mean for one thing he is, give or take his intellectual capacity, 100% guilty. And to have Steve just running around getting free salads with him on some island, it’s a little too unpunished, in a way. This is not a guy who should be running around happily. He may not be 100% guilty, but he’s damn sure not 100% innocent. 
>> 
>> Q: Why does that not apply to Wanda Maximoff?
>> 
>> A: Wanda…
>> 
>> Q: You think she suffered enough?
>> 
>> A: I don’t think she did anything near as bad […] None of those things were terribly interesting to us, the punishing of nice people, who already feel guilt. In the Bucky issue is…it was a bridge too far I think.
> 
> So yeah, instead of trying to take Wanda and make her a sort of redeemed something they decided to make her a kind poster child of the oppressed with everyone except Tony – _She is not an US citizen and they don’t grant visas for weapons of mass destruction!_ , saying that she is an innocent child that never did something wrong until Lagos (kinda deleted her brother too). And decided that all the audience was stupid enough to be fooled by putting the actors very far away from each other in every scene, apparently because, viewers with brains would have remembered AoU. Without mention that even with his hostility, Tony is still playing the doormat part by protecting Wanda. When we begun planning we said: okay, four can play this game. They want Wanda to have a big Karma Houdini? Okay, she will but she won't be shielded by Steve and living in the Compound. She will be alone, in a house, with Tony.
> 
> Tony’s characterization in this story is based more in Doodlegirl’s than my owns because we wanted him to have a backbone against the lazy biker gang that lives under his roof. Wanda’s is just as dumb as she is in canon except that she will have development… Eventually, –that's why my dear Doodlegirl is here, so no one of the two accidentally writes “and somebody stabbed Wanda” XD– and if she seems to be childish in this chapter that's completely intentional to show how Clint and Steve’s infantilism are a bad influence on her character. 
> 
> Thanks for the reviews!
> 
>  **Doodlegirl1998:** Honestly I was very disappointed and bitter about Wanda’s lazy redemption arc. If they wanted to redeem her they should have made her show regret for her actions during and pre AOU (no one gets that good at mind rape without practise.) 
> 
> I really didn't get the whole infantilization nonsense.
> 
> By infantilizing Wanda they aren't allowing her to grow as a character and they are letting her get away with her villainous ways in AOU.
> 
> Which sucks.
> 
> This is also Karma biting her in the Ass which was fun to write! :) consequences aren’t just for Tony! (WAKE UP MCU!)


	3. Tied to a Monster

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **AmbitiousWitch:** Music for this chapter:  
> [Here.](https://youtu.be/zFEhEolCqZE)
> 
> [Here.](https://youtu.be/T3rlg3imXOc)
> 
> [And here.](https://youtu.be/En8xKvH1DxM)
> 
>  
> 
> Sorry it is like this, it will be fixed tomorrow when I can put the links from a computer.

Wanda sighed while she packed her last skirt in the suitcase. This week had been awful from beginning to end.

After she had accepted Stark’s proposal, the man just became more unbearable with the wedding close. No matter how reasonable Clint and Steve were with him, he didn't seem to want to hold back his whims. As always, Wanda tried to stay on the good side, leaving that kind of discussions in the hands of the people that knew that monster better, but her pride also made her stay in the same room with them even when the discussions became too heated. Stark insisted on taking her with him to his parents’ house and keeping her there so she could be “safe” from the public but their team leader wasn't sure about that.

“You can't take her away just like that, Stark,” Clint had said whilst pacing furiously in Stark’s study. “Wanda is not a doll or one of your one night stands. You can't just hide her from the world to-”

“I will be hiding her from the authorities and people that want her head in a silver plate, Barton,” Stark interrupted coolly. “And Wanda is right here. I still don't know why you guys are speaking on her behalf. If you stay here, _darling_ , there will no cover, just me marrying a teammate that happens to be an illegal immigrant. They will find out in days, call the wedding a farce, and deport her. A crazy marriage and a very long honeymoon? Weird but not impossible and I have demonstrated disdain for the impossible, haven't I?” His arrogant, self-satisfied speech made the witch grit her teeth. The bastard knew that he was right and he was _enjoying_ having her at his mercy.

_Is this your revenge against me, Stark?_

“Wanda still has to come to training,” Steve refuted, not ready to give up. “No, Tony, listen to me. You say that she has to be loved by the public but she won't get to do good things locked away as your trophy wife. Wanda is an Avenger now, she will not able to come if-”

“You’re perfectly capable and free of going anywhere you want as long you are not fucking around with people’s heads in the process." Stark snaps, glaring into her eyes and ignoring Steve like he was nothing more than a fly on the wall. “Being locked away in training with no social interaction won’t be fine either, eh Rogers? You can come do your training here; the drive is not long.” Stark went back to his tablet preparing himself to ignore them again.

“Wanda doesn’t know how to drive,” Clint protested weakly. Stark almost rolled his eyes and put a brilliantly fake smile in his face.

“Then I will ask Happy to teach you or I will teach you myself. You can have your own transport,” Wanda’s jaw tensed up and she didn't answer him with anything more than a hateful stare as her fists clenched in her lap. Stark snorted like if she had spoken.

“That's my beloved fiancé, always grateful. You don't need anything more from me. I think that FRIDAY wanted to talk to you about dresses or something. Oh, and Rogers, Wilson wanted to talk about your “missing man” thing. I have work to do gentlemen and lady, if you will excuse me.”

Wanda had stormed out of the office after that, not wanting to hear her friends’ screams of  indignation because their love felt painful in that moment. They couldn't beat Stark in a game that he knew so well. He was a liar and knew how to use the people to get away with his crimes. Good and honest men like Clint and Steve were no competition for him.

When she rushed to her room, she let herself cry.

After that, Wanda had just tried to imagine the idea of her future life. Of what her life would be until some other horrible catastrophe would crash the Earth and she could be finally loved by the people. During that month she begun to pack her things “preparing for the inevitable” she told Viz with a dry smile, as well as looking for dresses with FRIDAY’s help like her fiancé had kindly suggested.

The day before the wedding, she was admiring her dressed figure when Clint knocked the door.

“Can I come in, kid?” Wanda said yes and her friend entered with a nervous smile. ”You look very pretty, Wanda.”

“Thank you.”

“So,” Clint sat down in the bed clapping his hands,” tomorrow is the day, isn't it?”

“Yes,” the young woman sighed, sitting next to him.

“Look kid, I know that Steve and I had been a little overprotective with you but we don’t know what Stark is planning to do. You are a walking reminder of his fuck up in Sokovia and his sole behavior of treating you as if you are his treat is making us nervous.” The archer tried to explain, putting an arm around her shoulders like he had done during Pietro’s funeral. The witch tried to not think about what Pietro would have said… He probably would have killed Stark before he could open his mouth again, but she knew that Clint would not. She loved Clint like an older brother, but he really would never replace her twin.

“I know that, Stark makes everybody nervous,” Softly Wanda spoke up, she still didn't know how she will bear being in the same room with him for more than an hour.

“Well, you know Wanda if he… Makes you uncomfortable in any way. I-I know that you can defend yourself perfectly but-” Clint pinched his eyes.

“What?” Wanda interrupted him, confused.

“Okay, I know that you two hate each other nuts but well Nat and I were enemies too. I rescued her and she is the godmother of  my kids now. Maybe by some _miracle_ you and Stark get along, you have to know that sometimes you maybe you can feel attracted and…” Wanda got pale as she listened to him and understood what he was trying to say.

“ _What?_ ” She was horrified.

“.., you have to know that those kinds of feelings are normal even for a guy of his age. If you want it, y’ know…”

“ _Clint_ ,” the witch snarled. _What was he doing?_

“... Because is perfectly fine for a girl of your age having… Impulses, but you had to know that-”

“Clint!” Wanda shouted in horror and then took a deep breath looking at the man that seemed no less embarrassed than her. “I _really_ appreciate your concern for me but I can assure you that I will _never_ want Stark. Even if I did… I don't need you to give me “the talk”, okay? I know how it works. Everything, really.”

He flushed and paused for a moment.

Her mentor was looking at her as if Wanda had said everything in her mother language.

“You know everything?” He parroted. His eyes were the size of dish plates.

“Yes,” Wanda replies, feeling her face burning. Goodness, she barely had talked about that with Pietro, could this be any more embarrassing?

“How?” Clint asked and she felt that that was too far. _Was he serious_?

“I had a boyfriend, Clint,” her voice came out unnaturally high. “Before the riots. School, parties, boys and girls, that sort of thing.” The young woman answered annoyed. Clint was still looking at her as if she was an alien but then he nodded awkwardly and excused himself, leaving Wanda alone still done up in her wedding gown and her face flushed with embarrassment.

Wanda groaned and started to undress. That was Stark’s fault. The guys were so nervous because of the marriage that they were starting to act strange.

* * *

 

As a child, Wanda had imagined her own wedding many times. In her dreams, she followed the tale of her parent’s.

She had pictured herself entering in a church, beaming as she strutted down the aisle to see the man of her dreams waiting for her kiss at the end of the service.

Then reality hit and the dream died.

In reality she would be walking down the aisle to Stark.

And her dream marriage shattered beyond repair even before it began.

On the outside Stark was undoubtedly handsome and fit all the requirements for her Prince Charming, but on the inside she could only see the broken ugly darkness within- she would soon be marrying that.

That monster who was responsible for the deaths of her family.

She had imagined herself with a long dress, like a princess in a fairly tale. Her wedding dress was beautiful, sure. It was a dress an actress in an old fifties movie would have worn, except for a little splash of scarlet red that she had put around her waist. No matter how nice Stark wanted to paint that situation, Wanda wasn’t going to let him forget who she was.

_He forced me to make myself into the Scarlet Witch. He has every reason to be afraid of me. Be very afraid Stark._

Clint was holding her hand when the judge called them. His heavily pregnant wife was keeping him company. Rhodes was sitting a little away from them with a tall, blonde woman.

Wanda took a deep breath when she gave the affirmative answer, trying to keep her face stony and not look to the eyes of the man that now was her husband.

Stark did the same.

“You may now kiss the bride.” Wanda inhaled sharply as she braced herself for the worst kiss she was sure to ever experience.

Leaning towards her, his eyes flicked down to her lips before he closed the distance between them.

Stark's warm mouth pressed against hers, his lips pried hers open slightly to give her a chaste kiss.

Wanda was surprised by the sudden warmth fluttering in her chest and the impulse to pull Stark in closer- all too quickly the moment was over and he pulled away.

Clint held her tightly when they stepped out of court to the trip to their new home. Her things had been sent there from the Compound, but Wanda would got to return two times a week to train with the team.

“Make sure you call at least once a week, alright kid? Otherwise we’ll stage a rescue mission from Stark’s evil lair.”

Although Clint said this in a mostly light jokey tone she detected the underlying coldness that lingered within him which showed that was what would _actually_ happen if she didn’t call.

“I will call.” She patted his arm reassuringly. “You don’t have to worry about me.”

She glanced into Stark’s dark, cold eyes and prayed that was true.

 

* * *

 

The journey was so quiet. She never expected that in the company of somebody like Stark. But during the whole journey he just looked directly to the road and didn't offer her the courtesy of making a conversation. The witch had tried herself once but she was only rewarded for her effort with a brief icy stare in her direction.  

The old Stark mansion was a big, Victorian house and that looked like it belonged on the cover of an old horror movie. Her new husband explained her that the house hadn't been used in more than fifty years and that the majority of the rooms were empty.

Wanda felt like a princess. A princess entering in a dragon's lair.

The dragon was directly behind her.

"Where are you going to sleep?" Wanda asked whilst dropping her bags in the middle of the floor. She hadn't changed out of her wedding dress and Stark was still in his black suit.

"Here of course," he replied coldly and Wanda froze up.

"Here?" Wanda looked to him sharply. "I thought this was my room... it has all my stuff in of course and there is only one bed." She narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm not entitled to sleep with you just because I'm your wife in name. Don't forget I hate you."

"Yeah whatever. Find somewhere else to lie down if you don't trust me not to grope you in your sleep." His blasé tone made her bristle. It used to be easier to get a rise out of him.

"This is a ridiculously large house," the witch hissed. Her ‘husband’ didn't pay attention and begun to take off his jacket. "Are you telling me that there is not another place where you can sleep?"  
  
"Like I told you, this house has been closed for almost twenty years, my dear wife," Tony gave her a dry smile. "All the other bedrooms are closed, unless you want to sleep in the bed that I used when I was a kid. I'm not leaving my own house for your comfort."

"We are in your parents room," Wanda hissed. “Isn't it weird for you to be sleeping here? Especially with what your parents obviously did in here-"

"Let's not go down that road witchy. I don't want creepy nightmares." Tony turned on to hang on his jacket. "Besides Howard was hardly ever here... it was mostly just mom."

She was stunned Stark’s voice sounded so soft when he spoke of her.

"Sounds lonely." The witch turned away, her eyes drifted shut. But she heard Stark mutter almost too quiet for her to hear:

“She had me, Auntie Ana, Jarvis... We made sure she was never lonely,” Stark tensed up, apparently realising what he had just said.  
  
"You'd better start to unpack your clothes." His voice was again cold. "I will be in the workshop."

"Stark wait-" she grabbed his hand and he stilled. Turning back to face her she noticed something intense and yet wonderfully vulnerable lingering in his eyes. She found herself staring at him almost as if she had never truly him before.

 _So the beast truly had a man inside of him. Could it be?_ She tilted her head and wrestled with her inner reasoning. _This is Stark! That bomb had his name on - it was him!_

Her voice took on a sultry tone. "This is our wedding night, Stark. Why don't we make a use of it?" Wanda took some steps at him feeling suddenly powerful. A smile crossed her face as the witch got close the him, touching his forearms and bringing her face close to meet his. “Then maybe I can learn not to hate you…”

Wanda closed her eyes and felt his breath in between her lips, followed by a calloused finger. When she looked at him, his eyes were a mix between fury and mockery.

"You suddenly want to fool around?" Stark hissed. "Didn't they say that it was dangerous to you to be here because my 'reputation'?... Funny that it's actually the other way around."

He sighed, most of his anger was gone but he was still wary. "Kissing someone is not a way to teach yourself not to hate them. I'm going to sleep. Don't try anything like that again."

Stark didn't go to the workshop, instead he said nothing as he began to strip down to his suit and change into a pair of pajamas. Wanda stayed static when Tony just got into the bed. She was still in her wedding dress.

_Does he expect me to strip in front of him?_

The young woman gave the man in the bed a hateful look and started to unpack one of her new nightgowns. Wanda looked everywhere until she found the small bathroom. She stayed there for half an hour, removing her make up, brushing her hair, and trying to prolong the bedtime as long as she could. But her eyes were closing at the end and with a sigh, Wanda went back to the bedroom.

Stark was sleeping, apparently, curled like a cat by the edge of the bed. Wanda got into the bed and looked to the sleeping face of the man that she would be tied to for who knows how long.

He opened his eyes suddenly making her jump, he gave a small mocking grin.

"Nice try by the way.” Wanda’s confusion was obviously evident on her face so he elaborated. “Your little act earlier tonight. You didn't seriously think I was that easy to drive out of bed did you?” Stark's taunting whisper made her snarl.

Wanda turned on her side away from him once more.

She'd just have to try a different tactic to get him out of her bed next time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **AmbitiousWitch:** Greetings to the happy couple!
> 
> Well, I’m sorry if Tony comes off as an ass in this chapter. But this how we imagine him during the post Ultron shit: direct, bitter and tired. Don’t forget that he is not only working on his own stuff but also _maintaining_ the Avengers. And also… If I was in his position would thrown everyone out on the street, so…
> 
> Also, Wanda, if she seems to childlike is because we think that every time that she starts to think: hey, maybe I fucked up. She goes back with "no, everything it's everyone's fault but mine!" Like the "I can't control their fear" bullshit. So... That's childish, but that doesn't mean that she is a child, just that she needs a smack to stop acting like one. Because apparently people wanting her blood in canon wasn't enough.
> 
> The scene with Clint… Yeah, we laughed our asses off writing it. It had to as hysterical as it could. Yep, here is your worst nightmare Mr. Twenty Years Old Can't be Held Accountable: Sex! Ha!
> 
> Oh, huh, they are the same house and neither of them is dead so, I call that a win… For now. 
> 
> Thanks for your reviews.


	4. Sowed seeds

“Good morning, Mrs. Stark.” The unfamiliar Irish female voice made Wanda jump slightly in the bed. She looked everywhere before she woke up properly and realised that she wasn’t in her room at the Compound anymore. Her hand went to the opposite side of the bed. It was empty. “Mr. Stark asks if you will join him for breakfast in the kitchen.”

Wanda snorts, wondering if Friday wasn’t just lying about the “asking” part. _How had he had time to get the AI installed?_ She hadn't heard FRIDAY last night. Getting up and slipping out of her nightgown into something more presentable, the witch told the AI that she was on her way.

Wanda just wanted to stay in the bed and forget her present situation, but she really didn’t want Stark to come in and order her around like she was one his employees. ‘ _I will never be_ his _to order around.’_

A moment later, she found Stark in the kitchen. He was walking around the table with a cellphone in held against his right ear whilst he gestured wildly with his left.

“Sì, signora. I disegni saranno spediti dalla signorina Potts. La ringrazio molto per la collaborazione.” Stark had a plastic smile on his face even hanging up. He glanced at Wanda while making another call. “Yes, Marlow. No, no, you know what you have to do. Tell them that Vision will-” he stopped a minute, taking a deep breath and pinching the bridge of his nose. “Vision is registred with my surname… Yeah, like a week ago, so he can make a declaration as any of us… Okay, okay, thank you. Call me when it’s done.” He sighed again and sit down on the table, running a hand through his hair.

“So, Vision is now one of your new toys?” Wanda said coolly crossing her arms. Stark glared up at her and frowned.

“What?”

She couldn't help but let her lip curl upward at that blunt rude tone. “You said that Vision is registered under your surname,” Wanda’s mood went quickly from gloom to rage. Her voice was low and cold as she approached him. “You weren’t satisfied with making me marry you? Now you want to make Vision your property! What kind of man are you?” she hissed, standing in front of him and making herself taller.  

Stark just matched her gaze with a deadpan face and an icy voice.

“The kind of man that is keeping your ass out of jail.” He smiled dryly. “Vision is registred with my surname as my adoptive _son_ , because I took part in his creation and the US government still doesn’t recognize androids as private citizens. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want him taken away or experimented on like an animal or worse.”

Wanda felt herself pale at the thought, Stark barrelled on. “What if he had to hurt someone to defend himself? Even not considering that, Vision needs to be recognised so he can testify about my wife’s _good deeds_ in Sokovia. Fuck knows you're not going to get much support from anyone else.”   

“Clint and Steve-”

“Didn't fight alongside you a lot of the time, funny that.” Tony sneered briefly. ”Furthermore, Vision has the abilities of the mind stone which allows him to look into your and only your mind to vouch for you. You both seem to have a rather _unique_ connection because of it.”  

“That's not true,” Wanda whispered. Vision barely knew about his powers, but she never had sensed an intrusion in her own mind.

“No, but that's what they are going to hear,” Stark replied bluntly.

“So you are going to lie?” Wanda’s voice rose in incredulity but she knew that she should never to put anything past the despicable excuse of a human that was Stark.

“I’m trying to paint your situation better than the unstoppable witch that just happened to join our team because Captain America and Hawkeye’s _good will_. You’re welcome.” He returned to his cellphone, and Wanda let escape a groan of frustration while pacing around the kitchen. She was tired of being silenced by that man.

“So, I suppose that I’ll have to go with you to these interviews, won't I?” the witch asked while preparing a teapot.

“You'd only look worse if you didn't.” Stark rolled his eyes as he retorted in a blithe, uncaring tone.He was rewarded with a brief scarlet eyed glare for his rudeness before Wanda’s attention was drawn back to the shrill screaming of the tea pot.

“Tea, husband?” Wanda lifted up the teapot with her glowing scarlet magic and grinned at the uneasiness she could feel coming off of him.

“Is it poisoned, _mia fattucchiera?”_

 _“Mia_ what _?”_ Wanda lifted a confused eyebrow.

“You know if I die now… you'll be in a lot of trouble, dear wife.” Tony glared the tea suspiciously.

“I'll get your fortune.” Wanda smiled. _I will play this game for now, but Stark you will never win against me if I do decide to kill you…_ Her smile dropped into a scowl as she dropped the pot heavily on the table. “I was just trying to do something nice. If I'm going to be met with suspicion each time I try, then I won't bother.”

“You are trying to be nice after just accusing me of making Vision my property,” he replied coolly. Wanda huffed, taking a long drink of the hot tea to avoid answering.

“It’s called an ‘apology’, Stark.” Wanda sat down in front of him and crossed her arms over her chest. “It’s what you do when you wrong another person.”

“And you know _everything_ about that, don’t you, _mia cara_?” Stark sneered back.

“More than you!” She hissed, becoming more angered at his honest laughter in response. Ignoring her, Stark raised up his cup and drank a little more. He glared at  her from top to bottom while taking his jacket from the back of the chair.

“Lovely conversation, darling. But I have to make arrangements to keep our beloved team accepted to the world. Happy will come later to give a few driving lessons. Don't keep him waiting. He won't stand for it if you do, and you won't get my help in learning this again.”

 

* * *

 

Mister Hogan arrived a few hours later with an Audi. The man was polite but cold, and when addressing her as “Mrs. Stark” his tongue seemed to squirm. He clearly hated the fact that she was the one married to his boss. Wanda knew because of talks in the team that the other man had wished things had worked out between Stark and Miss Potts instead.

_Clearly she had dodged a bullet there. Being Mrs. Stark is a curse._

Wanda, like Happy, couldn’t bare the fact that it was her who married Stark. Their  lessons were as cold and professional as the two of them could make them, but the man explained well and then allowed her to leave after an hour and a half of practice.

When she got back to their room, she found a notebook with a note in the cover.

**_Here is what you need to learn for tomorrow’s interviews:_ **

She felt her face slip into a sneer at seeing Starks familiar messy handwriting.

**_With Ultron your death toll count is 2,318 people and that's not counting everyone in Johannesburg because I don’t have the exact number of the injured, too._ **

Wanda’s eyes widened at the listed number and how many figures were behind it. _Two thousand three hundred and eighteen people? Stark had to be exaggerating._

**_Now that you know the number, try to look regretful or learn how to fake it good if you don't actually feel anything._ **

_It's only because of you that I was forced to do that!_ Wanda glared at the paper viciously. _Of course I regret Hydra but Ultron was you!_

**_It's good to learn the reporters names present so you look like you care about the event. Just learn the main ones from the biggest stations. They won't expect you to know everyone._ **

Wanda’s glare lessened slightly; she knew she could do that with ease.

**_Talk about your past as a protester. They love patriotic martyrs, convince them that you weren’t running around with a killer robot during all the situation. Ultron tricked you, enslaved you, lied to you because he wanted to get to me - whatever excuse is good. Remember telling them that we’ve know each other for more than eight months or no one will believe this marriage._ **

**_And keep that creepy smile off of your face the entire time, you know the one I'm talking about. Just try to not look like you want to kill me._ **

**_T.S._ **

He was expecting her to lie. To create a fiction in which she had betrayed her ideals and the memory of her family by falling in love with the man that murdered them. The bastard.

But... She didn't have a choice.

Wanda made sure to shoot her 'husband' a nasty glare when he had arrived to talk with Happy to review her progress with the tedious task of driving. He picked up on it, of course. The murderer just gave her a raised eyebrow and looked away.

 _I got your note. How dare you expect me to present this to the public! Now I am trapped with you when I could have so much better._ Wanda seethed internally due to Happy's presence, and once the man had left with Tony - _Stark_ never Tony - to talk in private she let a rabid snarl. However, that was all she let herself do even though her power pulsed beneath her skin. She bound it tightly inside herself. A lot like how she was bound to this place and to Stark, the murderer of her whole family.

She shook herself slightly and made herself move to her dressing table. Once she got there she forced herself to practice the lie in the mirror.

Desperately, the witch tried to keep a steady smile and worked to ease the tension from it. In just a couple of hours she would be declaring her love for her enemy to thousands of people.

 _"It's just one, just one night,"_ the witch tried to console herself.

Wanda sighed and walked out of her room to see what Stark could possibly be doing with Hogan for his long.

Then she heard them talking.

"I like the the black one," Mr. Hogan said. "I would dress black if I married someone that could and would murder me while I sleep."

"Watch your tongue," Stark retorted, his bored tone not matching the chiding words.

Hogan made a noise like he was going to speak again.

"Hogan-" Tony's  voice carried a hint of warning to it, but Happy didn't seem to get the message.

"Couldn't you have made things work out with Pepper? I had hoped that things would work out between you both! For goodness sake Tony, I got a ring that you could propose to her with! What are you even doing with that Maximoff girl? She tried to kill you all."

There is a stunned silence before Happy resumed speaking once again. "You and Pepper... you and Pepper you were perfect. She completed you, she is the best thing that ever happened to you and you just let her go. You were both perfect together." Stark remained silent for another minute but then spoke in a tight voice.

“You... Since when have you had that ring?"

"Two thousand and eight." Hogan sounded embarrassed suddenly.

"That's creepy." Stark didn't sound like angry just tired. “Jesus fucking christ." She heard Stark breathe next, he suddenly sounded desperate. "You get how creepy that is, right Haps? We were just friends then. You can't just get- Tell me you do."

Happy was silent for a moment. "I only want what's best for you, man. And Pepper she's it. She's your soulmate. She's-"

"Better than me." Tony's voice became hard. "You said so yourself - she deserves better."

"That was only to encourage you to change." Happy sounded fanatical now. "To make you be better so you could prove yourself and show you deserve her."

Wanda was stunned and it seemed that Stark shared this sentiment. "I don't- Who I end up with is my business. You can't meddle like that. You don't have the right."

 _You hypocrite_ , she thought furiously.

"You think that's easy for me? This marriage? Jesus, even my parents had better luck. You think that I want to be in the same place that that woman after what she did to the others?" A spark of rage grew in Wanda's chest.

"Then why are you doing it?" Happy implored.

"Because I saw the end of everything," Stark replied. "I saw everyone dead. And it was my fault. I need the team together for what's coming, Hap. I need to be sure that the Earth will be safe." Stark gives a hysterical muted laugh. “God, I wish I wasn't put in this position but it's true and this is the only way. I've got to prevent that." Tony sounded choked up and Wanda was stunned that her vision had that much of an effect on him.

 _I_ knew _it would control him_ , she reprimanded herself for a moment. No. _But I didn't know that he would_ drag _me with him. His fears are his own. I had nothing to do with that._

“The Avengers don’t seem very happy about this either,” Hogan said and Stark laughed again.

“Of course they aren't, but they don’t have an option and if I don’t help her they won’t listen to me and we’ll be all doomed.”

Wanda couldn't listen more. She didn't know if it was just anger or indignation at what she was feeling. In a way, a warm sensation sat in her heart knowing that her friends would just ignore and discredit Stark because of her. She would never have expected that loyalty from anyone except Pietro. However, Stark had played his cards, too, and dragged her with him in his exile. The team had discovered what Stark was truly like thanks to her: an unstable, power hungry control freak. Now he acted under the guise of helping her just to take her into _another one_ of his messes.

But…

Maybe he would free her if Wanda could stop him from fearing. Maybe she could just replace his fear with another thing so he would just forget about it and let her go back to the Compound.

Vision’s declarations would always favour her and after the interview that was coming the day after Wanda could convince everyone that they very madly in love well enough to them to stop trying to verify if it was real.

So, the day of the interview, the Scarlet Witch worked hard to look innocent, sweet and _normal._

“You’re ready?” Wanda was ending with her make up when Stark appeared in the kitchen threshold, dressed in a black suit and arms folded with a cold expression adorning his face. Wanda closed the compact mirror and smirked .

“Yes, we are going?” she said keeping her smile and giving him a peck on the cheek, he froze at that and the witch smothered a laugh. She would convince him that she was cooperating and then present her proposition as a truce.

She would not let Stark drag her on his self destructive spiral with him, not again.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **AmbitiousWitch:** Riiiight, I accept all the responsibility for the trolling of the Homecoming proposal scene. It just seemed forced and, in Happy's case, creepy. Having a ring since your friends weren't even together? Ew. Why does Marvel hate people staying single? Or dating _more than one person_.[Single Target Sexuality much?](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SingleTargetSexuality) And Wanda, well, she is case, isn't she ? Not easy living with one of your victim I guess. Remember: Unreliable Narrator!
> 
>  **Doodlegirl1998:** \- Tah dah! Here it is the long awaited chapter 3 Wanda is adjusting to life with Tony and she begins to set in motion the plan to save her ass. (Shoutout to AOU Wanda switching to the Avengers side against Ultron for exactly that reason.) Here is the Wanda we know! This is no helpless lamb! I hope you enjoy this guys :)


	5. Sticking together shards of glass

Trish stopped two streets away from the hospital in Harlem, where one of the girls from the Communitary Center had told her that the woman also worked as a volunteer. It was bustling inside with nurses and doctors running around. The aftermath of a battle, apparently. Or an accident. What was Mrs. Stark doing there? A rich woman/superhero in a hospital?

“Trish?” A familiar voice caught her when she was walking to the receptionist. “What are you doing here? Is Jess alright?”

“Claire.” Trish let the woman hug her. “No, she is fine. Hanging with the boys for what I know.” Claire gave her a smile of complicity.

“Then why are you here?”

“I'm looking for someone. She works as a volunteer. Mrs. Carbonell?” Trish supposed that Claire didn't know that Wanda Stark was using a false name, or if she knew, didn't take it seriously.

“Yeah, I know her. Are you her emergency contact?” Claire asked

. “What?”

“Yeah, we had a complication,” Claire licked her lips when she heard another nurse calling her. She took Trish by the arm and both started to walk.“I don't have much time, but there was an accident in a factory three hours ago. One of the the victims was in the hall where she was cleaning, we didn't see it, the poor guy had an internal bleeding and-”

“Oh dear” Trish murmured.

“She tried to help him, but it was too late,” Claire guided her to the bathrooms. “She was a little in shock so I brought her here just a few minutes ago. We tried to call someone but no one replied. Why are you looking for her?”

“We are friends.” Trish didn't like to lie to Claire, but Wanda was already lying about her name and apparently didn't leave any number to contact her family - _ husband? _ \- if something happened to her. Trish had promised herself to not take an interest in that woman; all those secrets were dragging her closer to breaking that promise. “We were going to have dinner tonight.”

How did the lie came so easily?

“Temple!” A woman screamed in the corridor.

“Okay,” Claire exhaled. “You can take her away, her time is over anyway. We don't need any more mess here and when I checked her she was fine. I'll see you later, Trish, probably patching up Jessica or the boys.” The nurse patted her on the shoulder before hurrying away.

Wanda was furiously washing her hands in one of the sinks, with the force of her motions seeming to intend to skin herself rather than just clean the surface. Trish looked at her up down and understood why Claire hadn't recognised her. There was no trace of the elegant woman that she had met in the Community Center. Her clothes were even simpler and more bland than Jessica's, without makeup and her messy dark hair put up in a ponytail. Of course one would recognise the pretty, light haired, fashionista wife of Iron Man.

“Bad day?” Trish said as a greeting. Wanda jumped and glared at her with big, panicked eyes. Her face was pink from washing and... Tears?

“What are you doing here?”

“Marcy from the Community Center gave this address when I asked for you. She said that you worked here half of the day, three days a week. As volunteer.“ Trish forced a smile. “That's really noble on your part.”

“Yeah, I'm not doing a good job though, am I?” Wanda laughed without humor. “A man just died in my arms and all I could do was stare.”

“You're not a nurse, Mrs. Stark.”

“You would have just watched while an innocent person died, Miss Walker?” Trish could almost hear herself years ago, telling Jessica that she could use her powers to be a hero, trying to help the people that Kilgrave had hurt. She shook her head. “That’s what I thought. He died and all of what I could think is how much I hated when he spat blood on my face.”

“What are you doing in a hospital if you are afraid of blood?” Goodness, nothing made sense about that woman.

“I'm not afraid  _ of _ blood, Miss Walker. I just hate being  _ covered  _ by it” Wanda ran her hand across her face. “You didn't answer my question, why are you here?”

“I told you that I would help you and listen to what you have to say but I didn't think that all our meetings had to be at the support group. I was hoping for us to have a tea in my house? Since it seems that you don’t want to give me your address.”

Wanda nodded. While they drove, all she would do was just stare blankly at the windshield, gripping her hospital bag. Trish had asked her first if her driver would come and get her, but the woman had shaken her head and answered that she had went to work by bus.

“By bus?” The blonde asked, incredulous. Her companion shrugged.

“Is nice to be around normal people for a while, without anyone pointing fingers or asking you if you are there to hurt them.”

Trish contemplating pointing out that Lagos was one of the very good reasons why people didn't trust her, but decided that the better was avoid to the subject.

“Claire said that nobody answered to your emergency contacts. Your husband isn’t home?” Wanda snorted and bit her lip.

“Pretty sure that the number that I gave was not for my house. No one would have answered anyway.”

_ So, you want to avoid where he is. _

“Make yourself comfortable,” Trish said when they arrived in her house. Wanda again had a small smile carrying her bags in her long blistered hands. Even with that defenseless look, Trish wished that she had Jessica with her now.

_ No, let’s leave Jess out of it, she has enough problems already. You got yourself into this, Walker. You get out of it on your own. _

“Your sister isn’t here?” Trish regarded the woman for ten seconds with an almost horrified expression before reminding herself that Mrs. Stark wasn’t a telepath but a telekinetic.

“Eh, no. Jess has her own apartment. And when she is not there she stays with a friend of hers.” It was technically true. Jess stayed with Matt half of the time since he had came back from his “death.” Trish didn’t quite understand what kind of relationship her sister had with Daredevil. But the lawyer had a black eye the day after Jess went to see him… And she had one Hell of a hickey that had been difficult to see because her scarf.

“I see,” Wanda said smiling shyly taking a seat in one of chairs close to the kitchen table. She seemed to have recovered from the incident at the hospital, back to her usual attitude. When Trish got the tea ready, she sat in front of her guest and got her smartphone out.

“Well, you told me last time about that interview that you made when you presented yourself to the American public. Is this the one?” She handled the phone to the woman.

“Yes, it is.” Wanda whispered, her pale cheeks turning pink for a moment.

The interview was with Christine Everheart, a woman that Trish defined as an “air head reporter.” She was always trying to be witty and intrepid but her arrogance ended screwing up her facade.

Mrs. Stark looked different in the video, and even though it was not a long time ago, she seemed younger. Her eyes had a strange spark that Trish couldn’t identify, a kind of security but not self awareness like the woman that was sitting with her in the moment. She had been all in white which contrasted strongly with her husband’s black suit and gave her an air of innocence.

> _ CE: So, Wanda, can I call you Wanda? Where did you meet? _
> 
> _ WM: Tony was doing a charity work in Sokovia. I helped refugees and survivors of the bombings. We met there and… frequented each other before he came back to America. About six months ago. _
> 
> _ CE: Wait, weren’t you with Miss Potts at that time, Tony? _
> 
> _ TS: We were friends, before something else happened and no I wasn’t. My relationship with Miss Potts ended close to the New Year. _
> 
> _ CE: Then it was a long distance relationship with letters and all? That’s very romantic. _

Mrs. Stark scoffed at the interviewer's shrilly voice. In the video, her younger self was the absolute picture of a young woman in love to the casual viewer. But with what she had told Trish in the last days, the blonde could notice the cracks in that perfect picture: the way that her smile seemed more shark-like than happy, her tense shoulders, the way that her hand was twined with her husband’s but her nails buried deep into his skin.

> _ CE: And you are going to be part of the Avengers, then? _
> 
> _ WM: If I can help. If I have the choice to help others, I will. My whole life has been trying to help the people of my country. Now I will try to help the people of the rest of the world too. _

“What do you think of that?” Wanda murmured pausing the video. “Did you believe it, when you saw it? You said that you had seen me before.”

“I’m sure that some people didn’t believe the tale, it wasn’t just me.” Trish shrugged taking a sip of her cup. “Some people said that you were just another future failed relationship.  Some believed the story and took you for a princess of fairy tale that was strong enough to tame the beast. Others that you were pregnant and that was the last stroke to make Mr. Stark settle down.”

Wanda almost choked on her tea. “They believed that?”

“Well, you were young and pretty. Accidents happen,” Trish said watching how Wanda dipped her head with her pale face burning again. “You weren’t, were you?”

“After all I’ve said, you honestly have to ask?” Wanda laughed bitterly and shook her head. Her eyes seemed glassy for a second. “No. No, I wasn’t — I mean he—  _ We—  _  I knew that he wanted children just… not with me.”

Trish was surprised by her apparent anxiety over that question, but after all she guessed that not many young women liked to being asked about pregnancy just because they were in a relationship —for what Mrs. Stark was telling her the charade wasn’t even that— and probably she would would have been uncomfortable too.

“You also did most of the interview by yourself. Many said that you were more in love than your husband was.”  

“And what did you think?” Wanda’s voice had a strange low tone. She became again in the woman that had met her in the Community Center. Trish kept her gaze steady.

“I thought that they had a point, after all, eyes don’t lie.”

“Eyes?”

It was Trish’s turn to smile. “After a whole life of working under the spotlight. A whole childhood… Sometimes you begin to recognize those same eyes in other people. My mother beat the crap out of me and my sister but I had to keep a smile. Always. When you get time to watch, you see that his smile never reached his eyes.”

Wanda cleared her throat before taking a sip of her tea and biting her lip.

“You are the first person that I’ve found close to the media that talks about my husband with respect. The rest seem to hate him.” Trish couldn’t identify what the emotions were in that sentence. Was it gratitude? Jealousy? Resentment?

“Well, they have their opinions. But I respect him, in some ways.”

“Because he saved your city,” the brunette said, nodding.

“No, it was more than that. It’s because he stayed when he could have run away,” Mrs. Stark said with a frown and Trish sighed.

“Your husband seemed just like any other rich person before his kidnapping, Mrs. Stark. And after returning from Afghanistan he could have either just kept going or disappeared. He could have gone to a doctor first after —How many? Three months of torture?— but he prefered to confront the destruction that his company caused headfirst.

“So when I saw him on TV just saying that he was going to abandon the weapons sales instead of continuing, with everyone calling him crazy for that, I thought: That’s a brave man. When I saw him flying that nuke that was going to make our city a new Hiroshima, I thought: that’s a hero.”   

“A hero.” Mrs Stark echoed, Trish felt immediately uncomfortable with the dark way Wanda repeated her words.

 

* * *

  
  
  
Wanda made her way out of the car. She had been arm in arm with her family’s murderer that whole press conference. The way that she had to smile adoringly and lean into her ‘darling husband’ made her repulsed with herself.

“Ok now that is over,” Stark sagged with what Wanda saw was a mix of fatigue and relief. However his eyes iced over as he gave her a uncaring look. “Thank God… now you’re out of my hair for a few hours which I’m excited for. This also gives you the opportunity to gossip with your protective wannabe fathers, witchy. This is a win win.”

She was sure to slam the door of the car in his annoying face as she strutted towards the compound.

It made her warm inside when she saw both Clint and Steve waiting for her inside the common lounge area. The TV was still playing as she walked in. She recognized the station’s logo in the corner and knew that this was because they were watching her interview announcing that Stark was her husband — that she belonged to Stark.

It was disgusting.

“Wanda, thank God you’re alright.” Steve bound over to her and wrapped her in a hug. He pulled away but kept his hands grasping her upper arms. “He didn’t hurt you did he? Tony did seem rather touchy on TV-”

“Whoa!” Wanda stepped away from him. “Just how old do you think I am? You know I’m twenty six - we just celebrated my birthday! I’m not ten!”

“I’m with her on this, Steve.” Natasha’s cold voice cut in. Wanda whipped her head around to face the spy. “She knew exactly what she was getting into. Just like before.” The words tripped off Natasha’s tongue in a way that highlighted to Wanda the venom behind them.

“Nat!” Clint stepped forward towards Wanda almost protectively.

Natasha rolled her eyes. “If I'm going to deal with this then I need coffee. Besides, weren't you her age when you enlisted, Rogers?”

Bristling Steve took two steps forward. “Those were hard times during the war,” Natasha busied herself with preparing her black coffee. “Many children enlisted back then—"

“You weren’t a child then, were you?”

“That's not what I am saying, Nat.” Steve retorted and gave her a disappointed glare that he'd normally save for Stark.

“You don’t have to take things from the past out on her, Nat. Banner went off for his own will.”  

Natasha’s face had creased in rage and without warning she launched her scalding metal spoon across the room to smack Clint right in the middle of his forehead.

“Hey!” The archer shouted, rubbing his forehead.

“You’ve got a family and a  _ real daughter  _ that needs your attention. Laura called, she wants you to come home.” Clint opened his mouth but no sound came from it, Natasha gave him a cold glare and then turned to Wanda and Steve. “You two can stop playing little house and come to  _ train _ . Because that what you’re supposed to do if you want to be an Avenger, Wanda.”

For once, Wanda didn’t protest against Natasha and followed her to the training quarters, leaving Steve and Clint behind. She appreciated how they were protecting her against Stark, but their insistence in her age was coming off as… odd.

“Right,” Natasha had led them all into the the gym. “Mrs Stark,” the spy’s lips twitched, “Today we are going to focus on your ability to defend yourself from multiple attacks using your telekinesis only.”

“What?” Wanda yelped before Natasha rapidly fired a gun at varying parts of her body. The witch defended herself with ease before freezing both Clint and Steve's punches. “Is that all?” she allowed herself an arrogant smile.

Vision and Colonel Rhodes joined them later. Sam Wilson was out doing a job for Steve, they said. Wanda thanked the android about his declarations with all her heart, and in return he gave her a sweet smile. Colonel Rhodes didn’t talk to her, but Wanda was sure she wasn’t imagining how he clenched his fists every time that Natasha called her Mrs. Stark. He had no idea how she wanted that to end too. She hoped it would stop that week.

When Stark came back for her before dinner, she had already planned out what she was going to do.

“Are the lessons with Happy doing well?” He said after a long silence, surprising her. They never bothered with small talk unless it was something about the declarations of Avengers business. “Hopefully you can come to train alone next week.”

“Or I can stay,” Wanda refuted, crossing her arms. Stark sighed tiredly.

“It has been barely a month. Maybe your performance was convincing, but being away from your husband so soon after that interview is going to raise suspicions.”

“Why? People can get a divorce after short time.”

“Yes, but normal people don’t have suspicions of terrorism and charges over their heads,” Stark’s voice was harsh, and Wanda snorted as she turned her sight to the windshield. 

When they arrived to the house, Wanda spent a considerable time silent, turning and twisting the words in her head. It had been easy to lie in front of that annoying interviewer; she didn’t know why it wasn’t easy to lie to Stark.

“I was thinking,” she said when they were eating dinner. That he knew how to cook had been quite a surprise for her, but in a few days Wanda had realised that that was reason behind him not eating with her half of the time. He’d simply left her to her own devices rather than relying on her to cook for him as well. However, Stark seemed being in a good mood since the interviews had gone so well.

Or well, as good of a mood as he could be with her.

“About?”

“How long has been since the last alien invasion?” Stark tensed up, holding his fork over his plate.

“Four years.”

Wanda put her plate aside leaning over the table. “And you think that more are coming.”

“You lived in Strucker’s castle” Stark replied coolly. “You saw the Leviathan. Do you think that we don’t have to be worried if something like  _ that _ comes back?”

“I don’t think that we have to be led by the fear.” Wanda kept her voice as calm as she could.

Stark's face twisted into a smile but with none of the mirth behind it. “Isn't that ironic coming from you? You have never lead people into doing things because of their fear. Have you, witch?”

Clenching her fists, Wanda felt anger at that bubble inside her but she took a deep breath in.  

_ Surely fixing minds is as easy as breaking them? _

“What about— What  _ if _ I don’t want to you to live in fear?” She began slowly, getting his attention and a raised eyebrow. “What if I can stop it?”

“What do you mean?” he asked, Wanda licked her lips.

“I was able to free Doctor Cho from the scepter’s control. It was not my doing, but since I was able to free her from the control of the artifact that gave me my powers, maybe I can also reverse what I  _ did do. Y _ ou wouldn’t have to live with the fear of the team dying or the world ending and I could go home.” Wanda spoke quickly and tried to control her nerves and excitement, but Stark was looking at her as though she had slapped him.

“What?” he whispered with a strangled voice.

“I mean that I can—”

“No, not that. What you mean with ‘reverse what I did’. What did you  _ do _ that you can reverse?”

Wanda swallowed.  _ Time had passed, he shouldn’t hold it against me. Clint doesn’t and neither Steve. If I want to be free... _

_"_ Sokovia, in the Hydra base, didn't you feel anything off? Feel unnaturally scared or triggered? Didn't you wonder where that vision came from? That vision of your team dead was random even for your traumatised mind… I'm amazed you didn't figure it out—"

“You.” Tony growled and she recoiled at his cold dangerous voice. ” _ You _ did that?”

“And I can reverse it,” she said holding his furious glare. “You can let me try and—” 

He smashed the glass against the table. The sound of the glass breaking against the wood made her jump.

Stark’s hand began to bleed but he barely noticed. He didn’t look at her or at her,, his eyes fixed on the floor. The sound of his heavy breathing was the only thing that broke the deathly silence. Wanda stayed still until her husband sighed deeply and then tried to take two deep calming breaths. The blood of his wound painted the white tablecloth. The witch scoffed, getting up from her chair and going close to him, but Stark glared at her until she stopped in front of him.

“Don’t.” His voice was a deep, feral growl.

“Your hand is bleeding, Stark,” Wanda stated, rolling her eyes. “If you can stop of being so diffi—”

“ _ Don’t  _ touch me,” he spat at her.

“Don't be childish—" She narrowed her eyes at him.  _ What was Stark so angry about? I told him what I did. _

_ “Don't be childish?  _ After you confessed to using your powers on me I have every right to be upset, witch.”

“Would you rather I just not told you then?” She retorted. “You're so ungrateful. I was offering to help you—"

“Help me?!” The yell took the witch off guard. “I don’t want you to experiment with my head so you can go back to the Compound. What? You think that I don’t see that that is what you want? That I don’t know why you are suddenly offering your ‘help’? Are you really so stupid to think that I will let you to put your fingers in my head after this?” Stark snapped viciously as he got to his feet and covered his face with his good hand.

“But it's different this time,” the witch tried to implore. “I'm trying to help you now—”

Stark laughed without humour. “No. The only person you are ever out to help is yourself.”

* * *

 

“I’m not surprised.” Trish said, Mrs. Stark gave her a confused look. 

“Well, he scared me a little that time…”

“I don’t want to be harsh with you, but he just reacted like a normal human being.” The brunette gave her a strange look, like if  _ Trish  _ was saying something illogical. “You asked your husband, who had been just recently attacked by a telepath, to find another telepath to cure him. That’s… That’s not something very intelligent to offer, even if you husband was in denial for what had happened. There’s many things that can trigger someone after an attack.”

“I didn’t think that I was hurting him, I just wanted to him to get help—”

“And I know, but these kind of things are involuntary, Mrs. Stark,” Trish sighed, resting her arms on the table. “When my sister came back after Kilgrave, I made a dish that the bastard forced her to eat when he had her captured. She snapped and had a panic attack right there at the table. I didn’t know what happened or what I had done wrong. It just happened. Also, why did you think that your husband was going to accept something like that?”

“What else could I have offered?” Wanda protested.

Trish sighed. “I don’t know how you think about your powers. But telepathy is different and telepaths are not psychiatrists, Mrs. Stark. Whatever telepath you would have found to help your husband could have also made him much, much worse. I can’t imagine telling Jess something like that or myself. Besides, I guess it didn’t work because otherwise we wouldn’t be having this conversation.” Wanda’s cheeks went to a furious red as she pressed her lips in shame.

“So, you say that I should have let him scream at me?”

“No, but I’m surprised that he didn’t snap  _ harder _ than that.”

Mrs Stark’s eyes widened. She paused and appeared almost incredulous for a moment before they darkened with something that Trish saw to be understanding.

Eventually Trish gained a tight lipped nod from the brunette and Trish felt relieved that Mrs Stark was finally realizing her own ignorance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **AmbitiousWitch:** Apparently, earlier versions of AoU had the Avengers and Tony knowing what Wanda did to him but forgiving her anyway, ugh, but we couldn't change this now with the other chapter published. 
> 
> Okay! Thank you for your support and reviews.


	6. Monster or Man?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Music for this chapter: 
> 
> [_Watching Ulla_ from _The Danish Girl_ soundrack.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzCIKXJTyFE) [_Go to England and Make Her Smile_ from _The Young Victoria_ soundtrack.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KojOaeGDk3Y) [_Mother of Evil_ from _Penny Dreadful season 1_ soundtrack.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d88E8T53V_k) [_Swan Song_ from _The Young Victoria_ soundtrack.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_Rz4RvIB7I)

The next week was spent in perpetual silence. Wanda was confused as to why Stark seemed so upset with her; she had admitted to what she had done. Not only that but she had offered him help. However even with that, the man seemed focused on ignoring her existence whenever they were in the same room, as if Wanda was no more than a fly on the wall.

_Well, if that is how Stark really wants to be then fine._

What had surprised her - at first she hadn't wanted to admit it - was that his reaction had really shocked her.

_I never thought he was that ungrateful._

The witch realised that she had underestimated the man that she now called husband. Wanda had grown used to a Stark that looked at her with coolness and insolence. She knew he was proud of his so called genius especially compared to her supposed obtuseness. And this desperate man would sacrifice everything to make thing right  —even the world he was trying to save.

The rage and violence in his eyes had shown her that she wasn’t living with a dog that just barked. She knew that he could very well bite if he wanted. The witch was lucky he hadn’t decided to use his fangs before. Wanda had to be careful with him now.

She decided to go to the compound for longer hours to clear her head and get away from that awful stifling tension with Stark. She had to admit that despite how awful the discomfort of the silence was, she was amazed that he had the tenacity to keep it up for a whole week.

“What happened between you and Tony?” Steve asked when they finished the last session of training. Wanda thought that this one had been too short for her to remember all the moves that they had to do.

“Why is the training was getting shorter and shorter?” she asked instead.

“It’s not getting shorter, Wanda. We were here for a couple of hours yesterday too.” Steve’s face morphed into a concerned frown. “Is everything okay at home? You seem more dazed recently.”

“I’m just thinking about when I can go back into the field and that this training seems nothing compared with what we have faced before,” Wanda said harshly. She yanked off one of her boots, glaring at it rather than the man in front of her. Then she sighed. “I’m sorry, Steve, I don’t want to lash out at you, but I am not in the mood to talk about home.”

“That bad, huh?” The sympathetic frown on Steve’s face was really beginning to irk her for some reason.

“Look, Steve, it’s nothing serious, I am just… Frustrated.” She entered the locker room they each shared  to change from her suit to her normal clothes. Steve stayed with uniform all day except for dinner, she hadn't noticed that before but it seemed to be a new habit.

“Well, I understand that” Steve replied, “Tony can be… a challenging person.”

Wanda laughed bitterly. “It’s not that. It’s that I don’t know how to make the things in my favour. I don’t know how I am going to go on with years of this. I don’t know why he can’t understand. I don’t know—” She stopped suddenly, her eyes wide open in the realisation.

_I don’t know Tony Stark._

It had always been that way. Wanda had kept trying to convince him, to threaten him, to reason and bargain with him. But the truth was that she didn’t know the man that she had hated all her life. She thought that she had and looking at his mind had only strengthened that view. To her, he was a war mongerer that was everything that she had needed to know.

He was someone that would break the sky and Earth to be right. But wasn’t that it? There couldn’t have been more to him that she missed, could there? Yet it seemed that wasn’t all there was to the billionaire.

That thought disturbed Wanda more than she could say. Stark was her husband now after all which made it even worse. She was stuck with him and now she didn’t have the sureness that she could predict what he would do. How he was. Before she had been tied to a monster and her parents’ murderer; now she was with a man that was hot and cold and unknown to her.  

 _I guess I have to bear it,_ she thought while driving back to the mansion. _Pietro probably would have called me whiney if he was here. I couldn’t even bare three months with Stark._

But well, Pietro would have broken Stark’s neck.

_I guess I can’t use him as a guide for what to do… It’s weird that now I don’t think I want to break Stark’s neck even after everything he’s put me through..._

She spent the evening reading and chatting with Vision on Skype, who was wonderful with computers but questioned simple things such as why humans needed doors. Sometimes she couldn’t believe that naive android had come from the cruel AI that had intended to end all of humanity.

She decided to make dinner this time instead of order it —she hadn’t seen Stark cooking all week — and with a long sigh, asked Friday if her creator would let her into the workshop. Even if they weren’t speaking, she could attempt to be civil and offer him some of the meal she’d prepared.

Stark was walking around the room when she appeared with the plate, and he apparently didn’t notice her because he had earphones in. He seemed stressed.

“No, I’ve told you that it’s too dangerous.” He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.

He started on another ranting tirade. “Yes, yes. And what if it doesn’t work, huh? What if it explodes, what if any of the circuits collapse and someone ends without an eye?” Stark went silent again and then groaned. “I’m not making excuses! Whatever the team has told you, we were just testing it and that’s all. Of course it works but it’s not ready and maybe it will never be wise to put it in the market.” Another pause. “No, it’s not you the one who is gonna confront the repercussions, you know well that.”  

He seemed to get more and more upset as the conversation continued, and Wanda really felt like a idiot for just standing there awkwardly.

“Oh, for God’s sake, Virginia,” Stark spat furiously, making her jump. “Stop talking like you have been dealing with that for a longer time than me. The R&D team is still _my_ responsibility and the designs, my property. I’m not letting you put people in danger just because you think that it will be good business. _I am not_ having more deaths in my conscience, do I make myself clear?”

Another deathly silence followed and Wanda tried instinctively to not make a sound. Tony ran his hand through his hair — which seemed to be a habit because it was a mess — and sighed.

“No, it has nothing to do with that… Look, I don’t— I don’t want to talk about it, okay? Good evening, Virginia.”

Stark snorted taking off the earphones and suddenly turned around to face Wanda. She was in the same position in which she had arrived and almost threw the plate when he actually spoke to her.

“What do you want?” he spat.

“I— Ah— I made dinner,” she answered. Wanda left the plate quickly on the table and looked at her hands, still feeling Tony’s piercing gaze on her.

“Thank you,” he said brusquely. It was clearly just for courtesy, and the brunette nodded before rushing out of the workshop. Her heart was beating a mile a minute.

 

* * *

  


“Can I accompany you?” Wanda asked Stark the next day while they — well, she — were taking breakfast. Stark raised an eyebrow from the tablet on which he was writing with an almost inhuman speed.

“Why?”

 _Yes, why?_ she asked herself. Why did she want to go with him to the company that had caused the death of her parents?

Why be with him _at all?_

Steve had cancelled today’s training session - this wasn’t the first time he’d done so - and gone with Sam to who knows where trying to find their “missing man.” Romanoff was on her own business, and Vision was away in a different mission with Colonel Rhodes. Wanda could always ask to go to Clint’s house, but she really didn’t know if she could stomach the poisonous glares that Laura Barton sent her way.

She could have just stayed in the house reading or went shopping but she would be alone. She didn’t mind her own company but now she didn't want to be alone.

Of course, she didn’t say that. “I think that it will be better to play it up for the cameras, don’t you think?” the witch smiled slightly, taking a sip of her tea. “After all, I won’t bother you, I am just your wife accompanying you to work.”      

“As you wish,” Stark said giving Wanda his false press smile.

The Stark Industries building was less magnificent than the tower but was still clearly something to be impressed with. Wanda walked directly next to or behind Stark while he went from top to bottom followed by other engineers, business partners, and interns. She still didn’t know how he managed to explains things while speaking so quickly but the man never stopped and the people around him seemed to understand him perfectly.

It was quite strange observing Stark in his… habitat. She had always imagined him rather… Different?

As a teen, Wanda had watched him on TV and imagined the villain of her story: a man coldly pointing at blueprints of missiles, weapons, and maps of innocent cities and receiving money with a smirk. The picture was different in person. Stark was serious, yes, but he also made little jokes when he lost sight of her and explained the simplest question with patience and a clear voice like a teacher would. And more importantly: in none of the conferences was there a single weapon.

She asked about that to a dark haired woman that was leaving a nearby office. Tony was talking with an important looking employee that had blueprints and a tablet in front of him, so Wanda took the closer witness that she got.

“Weapons?” The woman frowned. “Stark Industries hasn’t made weapons since almost seven years ago.”

“What?” Wanda muttered The lady nodded, looking at Wanda as if she was stupid.

“Tony closed the weapons department after Afghanistan. It was all over the news, how— Whoah, whoah, are you okay?” Wanda realised that she was breathing hard and had stumbled into her. The woman took her by the shoulders and guided her to a chair in her office. She disappeared, perhaps to get Stark, but Wanda was too deeply shocked to care.

Stark didn’t make weapons anymore.

How? More importantly, why? The man had being famous for that and everyone in Sokovia knew that the Avengers were supplied by the warmonger. And _seven years_ , that was way before the team was formed. How did he run a weapons company - without the weapons - for _seven years?_    

When the woman came back with Tony, the witch’s ears were buzzing. “Here she is, Tony. Do you want me to fetch a doctor? She seems a little pale still.”

“I’m not sick!” Wanda jumped from the chair. “I— I was overwhelmed by the people, that’s all. Thank you, Ms...”

“Jennifer Walters.” The lady looked at her with a confused expression. Wanda noticed for a moment that she had the most weird green eyes that she has seen. Not like hers, but _unnaturally_ green. Those eyes were, for a reason, familiar.

Tony just stared at her with a tired expression and then sighed. “Thank you, Jen. I’m sure that it wasn’t anything serious.”

“You can go home if you want, we can talk about the agreements tomorrow,” Jennifer said offering Wanda a sympathetic look, Tony shook his head, still looking sourly at his wife.

“It’s not necessary. I’m sure that you can wait for one more hour, right? Or if you want I can call Happy to drive you.”

“No, I’m going to sit for moment. I’ll be fine after that,” she insisted. Wanda tried to force a smile, the revelation that that Jennifer Walters had given  her still kicking in her head. Before she closed the door, she looked back at the office and a picture hung in the wall surrounded by diplomas caught her attention.

It was Jennifer Walters, younger, dressing more casually and smiling at the camera.

And alongside her, with an arm around her shoulders, was Dr. Bruce Banner.

“You’ll call me if there is any… word, right?” Jennifer said. It had been exactly one hour after Wanda’s “moment,” and Tony had wrapped up his meeting. Tony nodded and the woman wrapped her arms around him. “Take care of yourself, Tony. You look terrible. And if this is how you look in the first months of marriage I can’t imagine how you will survive kids,” she chucked. Wanda could see Tony tensing up as she joined them and grabbed his forearm.

“It was a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Walters.”

“The pleasure was mine, Mrs. Stark. I’ll see you tomorrow, Tony.”

Wanda let herself be taken to two more meetings without a word. When they were finally returning home she found the strength to talk.  

“What is she to Doctor Banner?” Her voice sounded strangled.

“His cousin.” Stark replied without looking at her.

“Does— Does she know—?”

“Does she know what you did to him in Johannesburg?” He completes her thought coldly with a cracked smile. “No, she doesn’t. If she had, you wouldn’t be here. She is the best lawyer in New York. She would have found the best persecutor in the country and would have hunted you down _for years_ until you were in the deepest hole that they could make.”

Wanda pressed her lips together. Was she really in such great danger? “Why didn't you tell her?”

Tony’s jaw tensed but his sight never left the road. His voice came out deep and horse.

“I told her that I failed. We were — Nat and me — we were supposed to help Bruce. And he was getting better. He was doing better. _God_ , he seemed happier than the first time I met him. But Ultron came from _my_ mistake, and I couldn’t control it and he went for Bruce as part of his vengeance.” He paused a second, taking a deep breath. “I told her that I should have been more clever, faster, that I should have guessed what was going to happen.”

 _But you didn’t_ , Wanda thought. But her mouth didn’t move and she just stared at the man without knowing what to say or feel. _You didn’t guess what_ I _was going to do, how could you?_

 

* * *

  


Her head was _burning_ … Someone, something had done that to her. It hurt. It hurt so much.

The sun was boiling across her back, then she remembered. An arrow, raw electric pain and Pietro taking her to safety.

 _Clint,_ she thought. _Clint did that to me._

“I’m going to kill him,” her brother groaned. “I will be right back.”

“No!” She panted, her lips moved of their own volition. She didn’t want him to kill Clint. Clint was good to her. _You saved him, you don’t remember? “_ I want to finish the plan. And want the big one.”

Then she understood where she was. 

Pietro carried her to the Quinjet where the dark haired man with the hidden beast in his head stood frozen in front of them.

“You don’t what you are doing,” he said, his voice calm and reasonable. “Whatever Ultron told you. This is not the way to get what you want.”

“On the contrary, Doctor Banner,” Wanda had smiled at him, _smiled_ , while her hands turned crimson. “This is exactly how we get what we want.”

Pietro had restrained the man while he looked at Wanda with a pained expression, like he had _pity_ for her. She had burned her fingers on his skull and watched how brown eyes turned green and then red.

But this time, Doctor Banner didn’t kneel while struggling with the beast. He was looking at Wanda with a dark expression, like the one that he had gave her when Steve brought them to the tower.

“I should have choked the life out of you in that moment,” he whispered and suddenly his hands were grabbing Wanda’s wrists. Everything went dark. Pietro was nowhere to be seen. “You think that _they_ will forget?” He forced her to look down, and Wanda let out a scream of horror while trying to free herself from his hands.

They were standing atop a mountain of corpses.

“They will never forget, Wanda,” Doctor Banner. She tried to climb out of the pile. A hand took her ankle and she fell down, her clothes smearing with blood and bile. “Their families are dead because of something, someone. You, me, that doesn’t matter. What matters is that you knew what would happen and you did nothing. You are still doing _nothing._ ”

“No!” The hands were pushing her down, dragging her under. “Please, help me!”

“No one helped me when you were there,” Banner replied coolly. Wanda screamed and screamed while the darkness buried her…

She opened her eyes again. She wasn’t at home. No, the familiar stone walls of the castle in Novi Grad welcomed her like a old friend. The Leviathan in Strucker’s lab, just as terrifying as she remembered. And at one of the tables, it was a dark haired man standing, panting, using the table as support.     

It was clear he was on the brink of an anxiety attack. _Pathetic,_ she had thought that time. _What a pathetic little puppet you are, Stark._

Then _Stark_ turned.

“There are no strings on me…” he crooned and his face changed. The brown eyes turned red and the human skin split and peeled from his skull. In its place was a bright, unforgiving, terrifyingly familiar vibranium face.

Wanda stumbled backwards but she tripped on something unseen and her back smacked against the stone.

Looking down at herself she was terrified to see red strings twisted around her feet, her fingers, her arms, and her neck.

“No, no. What is this?! Get it off!” Wanda clawed at the strings but they seemed to come from inside herself. She was terrified at feeling so helpless.

Ultron laughed. “Cute... The puppeteer is getting a chance to see how it feels like to be a puppet. How delightful, I always wanted a toy. Now I want you to tear Stark's heart out… I know you can do it.”

The rage exploded in her chest. _No one tells me what to do especially not you. You killed my brother._ Savagely, she attacked without hesitation. Her hands ripped out the vibranium and dug deep into the core out just like the first time.

_You took him away from me._

It felt good, the weight of the core in her hand, but in a blink, she felt something hot and wet in her hands… Too organic to be the metal core.

She looked down and in its place she gripped a heavily scarred human heart.

Wanda thought that she would throw up.

She could barely bring herself to look up at Stark, he was barely standing and it was clear that he couldn't do so for long.

“Stark…”

His legs began to fold under him and Wanda quickly knelt down to catch him to slow his descent.

He twitched a little. She could see so many things flash in his dying eyes. They were so raw and vulnerable that it hurt to look at him.

His breath shook in his chest, a sound Wanda recognised all too well as the death rattle. “Why?”

“You killed my parents…” Now upon saying it the statement sounded so stupid, so rehearsed and so childish.

Stark's head twitched a final time almost as if he was going to shake his head to deny that answer before the light went out in his eyes.

They became as dead and as cold as the organ she was still clutching in one of her hands. She couldn't seem to let go of the disgusting thing.

“This is what you should have done in the first place, little sister,” Pietro said kneeling next to her. His face was pale and his body was covered with bullet wounds. “That first time in the castle, I asked you. You had him helpless, Wanda. Why didn’t you just finish him?” He took Wanda’s face with one hand forcing her to stop looking at Stark’s corpse. “I would have lived if you did. Why you didn’t kill him? Answer me!”

“Stop it!” She screamed and trying to force his hands out her face, and off her shoulders. “Stop it now!”

“Wanda,” a voice said. Hands were again grabbing her forearms, almost shaking her.

“Let me go,” she cried, sobbed. “Let me go, please!”

“ _Wanda!_ ” The witch opened her eyes, panting, her face was wet with sweat and well as her nightgown. She blinked many times, getting her eyes used to the light again and once the mistiness cleared it only added to the wetness on her face.

She dug her face into her hands.

 _Oh god, where am I now? Who is going to torment me next?_ Someone put something in her mouth: a glass and it was filled with something blissfully cool that her hazed mind took a while to decipher as water.

“That’s right, all of it. _Slowly,_ Wanda,” the voice said again. “Friday, how are her vitals now?”

“They are beginning to stabilize, boss, but I’m afraid that Mrs. Stark is still a little disoriented.”

“Yeah, I noticed that. Wanda, it’s Tony, you are safe now, okay? We are in Long Island, New York, August 28 and it’s 3 am.” Calloused hands moved her hair from her face. Wanda was trembling as she looked at him. She could still feel the damp flesh of his heart cupped in her hands. And yet that wasn’t true. _He is alive, I didn’t kill him. It was a nightmare. Just a nightmare._

“I— I am sorry” she murmured, not knowing why. Tony looked at her with a resigned expression and sighed.

“It’s not your fault. It was just a night terror,” he said. He begun to get up of the bed but Wanda took his hand. It was rugged and warm. Not cold as metal. Not cold as death.

“Wait, _please_ . Can you—? Can you stay with me?” Tony pressed his lips in a tense line. “I’m not going to use my powers, I promise you. Just— _please_ , I don’t want to alone tonight. Not tonight.”

The man narrowed his eyes at her but then sighed, kicking out his shoes as Wanda eased over to let him get into the bed. He lied down away from her, as always, but Wanda felt comforted by the warm of his body that reminded her that she was not alone in the bed.

Finally, she eased into sleep. When  she woke up  it was just before sunrise. Her head rested on Tony’s chest. For a moment she thought to get up but the numbness was stronger than her, and she fell asleep again listening the beat of his heart.

Wanda never thought that she could be so comforted by the sound of his heart.

 

* * *

  


The proper sunrise through the window woke her yo. The memories of the strings around her wrists and neck, of the bleeding heart in her hands, made Wanda take a deep breath and press herself deeper into Stark’s chest. She needed that last moment of comfort before reality sank in.

The sound of his steadily beating heart drowned out the memories of her nightmare until she felt Stark shift slightly. He opened his eyes and looked at her. She was careful to keep still so that Stark would believe she was asleep. Stark sighed and looked at the ceiling.

“Friday, what time is it?”

“6 AM, boss,” the AI replied.

Wanda felt Stark’s hand on her shoulder and he shook her gently. “Wanda…”

She responded by only pressing herself deeper once more into his chest and resisting his attempts to pry her off of him.

“Oh god, you are going to flip when you wake up.” Tony sighed and flopped back on the bed. His attempt to take his arm away was aborted when Wanda had suddenly moved to stop him moving away.

Stark stiffened and Wanda knew instantly that her cover had been blown.

“I know you are awake,” Tony said softly. He still sounded tired, not that Wanda blamed him. According to the AI they had only been asleep for three hours. “Are you well? No more nightmares?”

“Huh, no. Thank you,” Wanda murmured as she reluctantly peeled herself away from him.   

“You can stay.” Wanda paused in rising from his chest. She found herself trapped in his intense gaze before he coughed and and looked away. “You did just have a night terror, I know you don’t like me and you’re ok now so you don't have to but… if it helps you can—”

It was obvious to Wanda that he was preparing himself from some sort of violent rejection.

“—Thank you.” Surprised, Stark blinked at her as she settled herself back on his chest. Her eyes were closing again when she heard him talk.

“What was your dream about?” Wanda frowned and opened her eyes trying to catch his expression. He was not looking at her, but there wasn’t any mockery or insolence there. I either, it seemed that he was just sincerely concerned.

She licked her lips and said: “My brother, Ultron, Doctor Banner… You,”

“Did you kill me in that dream?” He scoffed lightly; his eyes however were sharp and accusatory as they flicked to stare down at her.

“Yes.” Wanda answered with everything but humour.  

He gripped her tightly for a moment, turning both of them so that Wanda was now on her back and he was perched above her. His face was inches from hers. “Did you enjoy it?” he whispered.

“No.”

“Did you want it?”

“I don’t know.” Wanda whispered in response.

Stark snorted in response and when he spoke again his voice was low. “So, how did you do it?”

“How did I do what?” asked Wanda blankly.

“How did you kill me?”

Wanda took a trembling breath and move one her hands across his chest. “I ripped your heart out” she whispered, closing her eyes and feeling the beat of the said under her fingers. “I held it in my hands and saw the life going from your eyes,” she leaned close to him, not quite touching him but enough that she could feel his breath in her lips. ”You asked me why I did it but—”

“But?”

She got closer to him, their foreheads touched. “But I think that I—”

“Boss?” Friday’s voice made them both jump. “I’m sorry for… interrupting, but you have a call from Captain Rogers. He says it’s urgent.”

Stark recoiled away from her in an instant Wanda, too, moved away and hugged herself on her side of the bed.

_What was I doing?_

“I should go,” he said brusquely, getting up. “You should keep sleeping for a while. I’ll tell you when you have to get up for training.”  

He hovered for a moment, appearing oddly conflicted before stalking away from her.

Feeling colder than ever and now by herself in the large bed, Wanda's traitorous eyes burned as she tried to comfort herself by imagining the arms wrapped around her weren't her own but belonged to Stark.

Weirdly though it only succeeded in making her feel more alone than ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **AmbitiousWitch:** Friday The CockBlocker, lol.
> 
> Well, this chapter was longer than we thought and it took less time. 
> 
> Initially, we were thinking about this 'see each other's vulnerabilities' that always goes around in Enemies-To-Lovers stories... Theee problem is that Wanda has _already seen_ Tony in that place (AoU) and she didn't give a fuck. So, we decided to go for something less orthodox and having her him angry (the last scene of our previous chapter). With we can have her at least _starting_ to think Tony as an actual human being with complex emotions just like her. 
> 
> And the nightmare, well, I'm gonna keep rubbing Johannesburg in her face for every time that canon rubbed Ultron in Tony's.


	7. Truce

 

For one hour and a half, Wanda tried to close her eyes and sleep. Tried to dismiss what had happened as a simple moment of kindness or a trick to ask if she was staying in the Compound anymore. But she couldn’t. She couldn’t stop feeling Tony’s hands cupping her face, the intensity of his eyes, the beat of his heart. She began to wonder what would have happened if Friday wouldn’t have called. 

But the dream was also pressing in her mind. Violent and horrible. She rubbed her wrists at the phantom sensation of the strings around them. The smell of the blood...

_ No _ , she told herself; it had been only a dream. She was tired from the training and… 

_ Who am I trying to kid? We aren’t even training.   _

Friday told her that Tony was still in the house so Wanda resigned herself to the idea of confronting him with what she had heard from Ms. Walters the day before. She also, for her own sanity, pushed away from the thought of Doctor Banner and that pile of corpses. 

She found Tony making breakfast, something he hadn’t done in weeks since her ‘offer,’ which made her think that maybe after what had happened last night the tension between them could have softened. 

But she  _ had _ to know what had happened.

“Take a seat,” he said, not looking at her. “I made some tea and some fruit biscuits that Vision recommended me to buy. It’s weird to take food advice from someone who doesn’t eat. But the kid is very insisting, or  _ somebody _ is telling him about what my doctor orders me to eat.” He ended in a playful accusatory tone. 

“I didn’t do anything that my program doesn’t order, boss,” Friday said, defending herself. “Your cardiologist orders a very specific diet.” 

“Have you see me eating something that you consider inappropriate, young lady?” he teased, pouring out the tea. 

“When do you  _ actually _ eat? No, no really, boss,” the AI replied with an equal snarky tone. 

“Okay, okay, it’s a dead heat. Are you going to sit, Wanda?” The woman didn’t realize that she had been standing during the entire conversation. That scene had been just so painfully  _ domestic _ that it seemed too surreal for their normal routine, but the  _ peace _ that emanated from it was… so desirable. “You alright?” 

“Yes,” she whispered, not quite making the effort of lying properly. “What did Steve want?” 

“Something about his missing man. He said that you don’t have to go to training today,” Tony scoffed while sitting down. 

“Good,” Wanda sat down with a serious expression. ”Because I wanted to talk to you about what happened yesterday.” 

“Listen, Wanda is alright. Everyone has bad dreams—” 

“I’m not talking about that,” she spat sharply but then took a deep breath. “Ms. Walters, yesterday she told me that you had stopped making weapons.” 

“That I did. Why is that a surprise for you? You were with me the whole afternoon,” Tony asked frowning. 

“Why?” Wanda couldn’t contain the disbelief in her voice. “Why did you do it?” 

“Why are you asking me this now?” he said, irritated. 

“Because you are Tony Stark!” Wanda exclaimed, winning a confused look from him.”You— You made yourself rich with weapons. You always did, you—”

“First of all, I  _ inherited _ the company, Wanda. It was a family business, I didn’t create it,” he interrupted her in a deadpan voice. “Second, I don’t know why you’re so confused. Anyone with access to the news knows—” 

“What happened in Afghanistan?” Wanda asked brusquely and Tony froze in his seat.

“Pardon?” Stark asked coldly. His eyes gained a layer of ice over them as he glared at her. He seemed to be almost trying to warn her to make her back off, but Wanda wasn’t going to be deterred. 

“You heard me. What happened?”  Wanda leaned forward and tried to keep her expression calm. She wanted him to open up to her, and that couldn’t be done if she showed fear or anger in this situation. He was like a cornered animal ready to lash out at any weakness in order to escape.

“Why are you asking me this?” Stark hissed and got up from the chair, turning his back to her. “I got kidnapped during a product demonstration.”  

“What?” the woman whispered. 

“That is how I got the reactor,” he continued coolly.

“The scars that you have are from that?” Wanda asked. Stark nodded without looking at her. “I thought that they were from experimenting.” 

Tony scoffed. “Yeah, of course, you did.” His voice became laced with heavy sarcasm. “I mean I loved experimenting with myself to the point that I had a fist-size hole in my chest and chronic pain for years.” 

“What?” Wanda’s own voice seemed unrecognizable to herself with how high and choked it sounded.

“You really have no clue.” Tony laughed without humor. “How blissful you were in your ignorance and hatred of me. Well, now you know, darling wife. The truth is ugly and painful. You were lucky. In my case, the bomb  _ did _ explode.

“Oh, but that wasn’t the best part of course. My godfather was the one that was leading the company in that moment, and he also was the one that sold me to the terrorist faction that captured me. Except that it backfired on dear old  _ Uncle _ Obie-” Wanda cringed “-because the Ten Rings also wanted weapons from me.” 

“And what did you do?” Wanda muttered. Her mind was turning in circles, trying to process was she was hearing. 

“Did you think I would give in?” Wanda opened her mouth to deny this before Tony barreled on. “I said no,” he said with an icy voice. “Over and over, no matter how much they tortured me to do it. When I broke, I lied, and that’s how I created the first Iron Man suit. I freed myself, losing a good friend in the process, and I killed all of them to destroy my weapons and avenge him.” 

“You lost a friend?” Wanda asked weakly. Stark’s jaw snapped shut and he turned away.

Stark was silent for a very long time, so long Wanda was about to apologize before Stark spoke again.

“His name was Yinsen. He operated on me, twice. Kept me alive. Helped me build the armor.” The next words sounded like they had been pried from Stark’s mouth like teeth. “I would have gotten him out, too, but he didn’t stick to the plan.

“I found out later,” Stark’s dark eyes looked up and bored into hers, “that my weapons killed his family as well as him. And yet he saved my life—“

“Stop!” Wanda said burying her nails in her forearms. That couldn’t have happened. No. How could everything be so wrong? Stark’s eyes were cold and piercing but he obliged. “The weapons, what did you do with them?”

“After Obie tried to kill me?” He smiled sharply. “I tracked them all and melted them. Destroyed them.” 

Wanda found herself struck speechless. She got up, leaning on the table. Why? Why was everything suddenly so complicated? Why did Stark—  _ Tony _ have to move away from the villain in her memories? Why suddenly was the name and face that she had hated for so many years now just a man that had risked his life to his life’s work?

“Why didn’t you just stop the double-dealing after what happened? Why stop building weapons entirely… that’s all you did—”

“Weapons weren’t all I did,” he spat. “It was what it was expected of me as the son of the  _ heroic  _ Howard Stark. You were with me in the facility. You saw the Compound and Friday. You know that’s not the only thing that I could do.” 

“I just thought that’s all you wanted to do.” Embarrassed, she confessed. “That you were some evil villain pointing out random towns to blow off the map with his weapons…”

“You’re not alone in thinking that.” She found Stark’s expression was hard to decipher when she looked back to him. “It would be so much easier if that was the case but my conscience wouldn’t allow it. I promised Yinsen I wouldn’t waste my life. I want to be better for not only him but for myself.”

There was a massive pain in his eyes. A pain that she had seen in herself, every day, after losing Pietro. Wanda wanted with all her heart to back up, to return to that blissful ignorance where it was just a single bad guy to blame. She didn’t know what to do. If she got close and he snapped they both would end screaming at each other. Hurting each other. And… she didn’t want that. Wanda had just wanted the truth, and he had delivered it, painful, as he said it. But it was what she had wanted and she got it. Even when she didn’t know what to do with it. Weeks ago, Wanda would have accused him of trying to make her pity him, saying that he hadn't lost someone so important as her parents were for her. But now, she… 

“I don’t know what to say,” she muttered and Tony sighed.

“Sometimes it’s better to not say anything.” His voice was calm now, the tension of the room was leaving to leave behind tiredness. “I have work to do.” He passed next to her and when Wanda realized that she was alone, she collapsed in the chair burying her face in her hands. 

_ What am I going to do? _

 

* * *

  
  


That evening she entered in his office — he always said that was  _ his father’s _ , not his, but he couldn’t do everything in the workshop — with the dinner and found him at a desk overflowing with letters. 

Wanda had never entered into that room before. It seemed coming out from a black and white film: dark and heavy furniture closed windows. Nothing like the workshop that seemed to always emanate life, even when technically that was not possible. Suddenly she understood why Tony didn’t want the claim for that room, it was nothing like him. 

_ What am I thinking?  _ She shook her head and cleared her throat. “I— Hmm, brought dinner.” 

Tony didn’t look at her first, very focused in whatever he was writing, but then he sighed and got up to take the plate. He had glasses on — he had told her that he hated using them — and his eyes were slightly red like he had been crying. “What are those?” Wanda asked failing to contain her curiosity. “From… fans?” 

“Fro the relatives of the victims in Johannesburg and Sokovia,” Tony answered in a dark even voice. “Or the ones who didn’t burn the letters.” 

“You sent letters to them?” the woman whispered, not knowing whether to feel amazed or horrified. 

“Some of them sent them to me,” he said shrugging. “Death threats, some of them. Others expecting me to rot in Hell.” 

“Why do you do this?”  _ Was he a masochist or something? _

“Is the least that I can do,” he said coolly and Wanda knew that he was too stubborn to give her a proper answer. “If that’s all, then goodnight. Thank you for the dinner.” 

“I wanted to talk to you, actually,” Wanda said, crossing her arms. “About this morning—” 

“We have nothing to talk about,” he snapped to interrupt her. The witch had to contain a growl. 

“I don’t want to fight.” 

“Good.” 

“I want a truce.” 

Tony raised an eyebrow. “What kind of truce?” 

“I just— don’t want to fight with you anymore,” she whispered and kept a neutral expression as she was talking in another language and had to translate her words. Then, after a moment, he handed her one of the many letters on the desk. “What’s that for?” 

“Read them out loud while I am answering the other ones. The sooner I answer, the sooner we finish,” Tony said and Wanda knew that it was the only agreement that she could get for now. 

She cleared her throat again, opening the envelope and starting to read the first letter. “Dear Mr. Stark. Can’t say that your letter didn’t surprise me or make me feel angry at first. But after stepping again in my turn at the hospital and seeing the people of your Relief Foundation, I guess I couldn’t stay quiet.”

Wanda looked at Tony for a long moment before continuing.

“I was one of the people that you saved from that elevator that the Hulk destroyed, I remember the gigantic armor that stopped us from falling to our deaths and for that I am grateful. Even when, just twenty minutes before that, I lost my father because of another of the landslides before you got to our city. 

“I blamed you for many months for his death, even when you had saved my life, but now I feel that I can’t judge you more than I can judge a fireman failing to save someone from a fire. Your actual actions and your apologies — excuse me if I don’t understand very much your explanation about how the AI went rogue — allow me to know the kind of man that you are. And for your previous actions, I let you at the mercy of God. Sincerely, Ebele Oparei.” Wanda closed the letter with tears in her eyes and look at Tony, who had his hand clasped tightly around his pen. He took a deep breath and handed her another letter. 

To her, it seemed almost like a test, a chance that Stark was giving her and she wouldn’t let him down.

Now she had to see for herself. 

After reading that letter, the next and the next she found herself in tears early the next morning. Stark’s dinner had long gone cold but neither of them was hungry. 

Despite the hollow sensation of guilt clawing at her chest, she felt closer to Stark than ever before. Stark’s hand awkwardly resting on her shoulder was the only sign he gave of their truce.

Although it was a nonverbal one she knew it was a sign of trust or maybe a sign for her. 

One of hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **AmbitiousWitch:** Sorry for such a short chapter, but it will be another in a few days. Thanks for the reviews!


	8. Holding on and Letting go

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Music for this chapter: 
> 
> [_Faith_ from _Outlander_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucWRD_Rs3To) (begin to play in the second scene).
> 
> [ _Two Figures by a Fountain_ from _Atonnement_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtFrrYBPz3k) (begin to play in the third scene).

 

“Are you sure you don’t want to come with me?” Wanda asked while finishing zipping up her jacket. Two weeks since their truce, she and Stark had cohabited in a strange harmony while her days in the Compound were getting shorter and shorter. 

At least when the training was involved, she still went to visit her friends two days at week, but not all of them were pleased to see her. Vision seemed happy with her company. Steve was grim as ever, allegedly due to frustration if Sam was to be believed. She and Natasha had managed to establish some kind of civility or avoidance, and Clint, of course, always called and asked for her. 

This week they had arranged a movie night, and Clint was even bringing his wife and children to the Compound. Wanda couldn’t help but notice that none of them invited Tony first, but Natasha had given them a cold glare to which Steve had quickly cleared up that of course, her husband was welcome. 

Tony chuckled when she brought up the invitation almost as if he knew about the less-than-genuine intent behind it and fixed his fallen glasses. “No, darling. I have some designs to retrieve tomorrow. Enjoy yourself.” 

“As you wish.” Wanda shrugged trying to stop her heart that beat erratically every time that he called her  _ darling  _ without irony. “Good evening.” 

“Good evening.” 

Steve’s smile seemed tight upon initially seeing her enter the compound; there was something tense and fractured behind his eyes that Wanda initially shrugged off as something about his ‘missing man.’ 

That was until Steve took her aside right before they could start the film. 

“Look, Wanda, you know that I don’t think the worst of Tony without reason, but I can’t help but be concerned about what’s going on.” Steve appeared extremely awkward, almost constipated by Wanda’s imagination.

It was clear that Steve needed more prompting to get his words out.

“What you mean?” 

“You don’t come to the Compound as much as you did before. Are you really staying all day in that large, empty house?” Wanda wanted to tell him that she had started to take guitar classes in the town but his tone somehow upset her. 

“It is my house too now, Steve. I have to live there, remember?”

“I know but I can’t help but worry…” Steve continued in a soft careful tone that somehow irked her. She wasn’t made of glass, and she wished that Steve would quit treating her as if she was. “I know abusive relationships when I see them and Stark- what Tony is doing to you, isolating you from us-”

“No! No Steve for God’s sake, I just have been reading for him that’s all.” Wanda could feel a confused expression etched on her face as she continued to meet Steve’s eyes.  _ What was wrong with him? Why couldn’t he see she was acting on her own choices, not Stark’s? _

”We are in a truce,” she said to try to clarify. 

“Are you sure you’re not confusing that truce for submission?” That annoyingly concerned expression was still there as he took a step closer to her. ”Because Wanda if he’s hurting you, you can tell us. You don’t have to protect him out of some misplaced loyalty or guilt.”

Wanda frowned at him remembering the letters but also remembering how Tony had been open about one of the worst moments of his life when he could have told her to fuck off. He had been earnest then, she was certain. 

“Are you gonna watch the movie or play the persecutor, Steve?” Wanda jolted, having not seen Natasha creep up behind them. “They are married. Sooner or later someone was going to stop fighting. My guess is that it was Tony, right?”

Natasha clicked her tongue at Wanda, having taken her silence as a confirmation of her assumption being correct before turning to Steve. 

“Actually, it was me,” Wanda said. Natasha’s piercing green gaze snapped sharply back to Wanda. Her eye’s narrowed at the witch, who felt like she was being X-rayed for a brief moment. “But he suggested that I could read for him as a peace offering.” 

“Hmm… Do wonders never cease?” Natasha pondered. Wanda wondered whether she should feel offended at that, however, Natasha had already turned back to Steve. “That’s hardly the behavior of an abuser, Steve. Wasn’t Howard your friend? Surely you should offer his son the benefit of the doubt rather than jumping to those disgusting conclusions.”

“What are you implying?” Steve asked looking at her with suspicion. 

“The kids want to see the movie,” Natasha spat to end the conversation. Wanda muttered something close to a ‘thank you’ when she passed her.  _ Was that what Tony had felt when she had jumped quickly to conclusions?  _

Clint allowed Wanda to carry his baby son, despite his wife’s disdain for Wanda. The little boy that had her brother’s name pulled her hair and smiled like she was of the family, not the woman that had tortured his godmother. It was strange, seeing Natasha be warmer with the child than she was with anyone. Of course, she joked with Steve and Clint and was fiercely protective of Doctor Banner whatever he was ill mentioned, but with the baby and the little girl, it was like watching another person. Maybe she was always like that. Maybe Wanda was the problem. 

_ I will apologize to her.  _ The witch thought, suddenly growing a sentiment that it could be named as courage _. When she lets me. When she is ready, I will.  _

The movie proceeded without more discussions - aside from Clint mocking that Stark should be old if he needed someone reading to him. Wanda liked  _ Star Wars _ and she felt strangely attached to the young Darth Vader, maybe because she saw in his desperation ways she herself always tried to protect her loved ones. When she was driving home after the evening wrapped up, she thought about Pietro. It had been months since his death and there she was, an Avenger and married. 

“How was the movie?” Tony asked when she entered the workshop. He was still working, making gestures around blue holograms. “Nat said that she was going to make them watch the prequels as method of torture but I think she too harsh—”

“I would like to take a trip,” Wanda said suddenly and he turned around, surprised. “To Sokovia. I want to visit Pietro’s grave.” 

Tony blinked at her for a few seconds but then nodded. “Of course, I think it's safe if you go with a low profile maybe. I will get you the tickets or really you can just get them yourself. I don’t know why you asked me.”

“I want you to come with me.” Wanda interrupted his rambling again.  _ Was he nervous that someone would persecute her? _ “You… You might want to check how the things are going there with the Foundation and the refugees while I see Pietro.”  _ God, that was a poor ass excuse.  _

“Okay,” Tony said with an awkward smile. Wanda nodded as they said their goodbyes. He obviously was going to keep working, but she needed to sleep to see if sleeping would convince her that she was doing something impulsive

_ Impulsive is the middle name of every Maximoff,  _ her father used to say. 

  
  


* * *

 

Sokovia was a reconstructed ruin, in a way. Novi Grad, their small but proud capital, had been reduced to a big crater. But even with that, Wanda was surprised to see children playing in the streets and little markets already working again. She had left Sokovia as a place without hope, a place where she just could wait for death. 

But there it was, changing and progressing from its ashes without her. 

_ Maybe because you were never important _ , her mind told her.  _ You were just one rebel in many. You didn’t help this country at all.  _

Her conscience was starting to sound a little like Natasha. 

Tony had stayed with the representatives of the Stark Relief Foundation while she went to the cemetery. It seemed like the funeral had been ages ago. She hadn't allowed Tony to be there though he probably wouldn’t have gone anyway. He and Thor had been helping with the cleanup while Wanda was drowning in her pain. Clint had cried during the service; he hadn’t known Pietro for more than one week, but he had still cried. In that moment, Wanda had known that she could trust him more than the others. 

Her twin was buried alongside her parents. It was morbid that a graveyard had survived the fall of the city, maybe because it was far enough away from the chaos, but it gave strange meaning about the rest of the dead. She had never asked Tony if he had paid for the stone too. It would no longer surprise her if he had.

_ Pietro Maximoff.  _

_ Beloved son and brother.  _

_ Django Maximoff and Marya Maximoff.  _

_ Beloved parents. _

“Hello, Pietro,” Wanda said, taking a sharp breath. “I’m sorry that I didn’t come to visit you but… I couldn’t be in this place anymore knowing that your grave was here too.

“I went with the Avengers, brother, and took revenge for you. I took out the heart of that killer robot that took you from me and I would have done the same to Stark if I—” Wanda hadn’t realized that she was sobbing. She left out a tearful laugh as she dried her face with the sleeve of her coat. 

“I married him.” It was strange to say it in that place. “I did it for survival first. I was terrified of being alone but  _ now. _ Now I don’t know what to do, Pietro. I don’t know what to feel. 

“Every moment since our parents died was always the same thought for us ‘What if the bomb hadn’t fallen on our house?’ But your death… That was more than I could put on Stark, wasn’t it? It was more than one what if. Starting with what if we hadn't volunteered for the experiments. 

“He stopped making weapons, Pietro. He destroyed them. Whatever I did to him in that base… It was child’s play compared to what he had already endured. And he stopped, to protect people like us and I— I don’t know what to feel. 

“I dreamt of you, telling me to finish the job, but I  _ can’t _ , Pietro, because… If I do it, how different am I from the men in that cave?” 

Her face was probably a mess. Her hands and sleeves were dirty with makeup. Wanda wanted to keep crying, to laugh, to scream. She looked at the stone and the cloudy sky of her home country and saw the truth: 

Sokovia didn’t need her. 

Pietro and her parents were dead.

Tony Stark was no longer her enemy. 

She had to move on. 

“Are you okay?” Wanda jumped at Tony’s voice.  _ Had he been listening? No, probably not since he was quite distanced away.  _

She smiled at him, the most real smile that she could give him in that moment. With a small odd fluttering feeling bubbling in her chest, she took his arm. “Let’s go home.” 

 

* * *

  
Another month passed, between reading and training and her own classes. Wanda told herself that she could live like that forever. The missions started too, but they were quite standard. Just tracking and capturing, though there were just four on the team. She still visited the Compound weekly but mostly for Vision, who also began to visit them and help Tony with his work, as well going to visit his “mother” Doctor Cho. 

Wanda was not a musical prodigy. Indeed, she was kind of a slow learner; but the guitar classes relaxed her and her teacher was very patient. She would not become a musician but she started to wonder if she maybe could teach Slavic in some community center. 

Her afternoons and nights with Tony grew pleasant. She grew used to reading as he worked. She explored the house and found some books in the library, and with his permission — the books apparently belonged to his mother and Wanda had learned that she was a touchy subject for Tony — Wanda had started to read different books. 

“ _ ‘Well, my dear, _ ’  _ said Mr. Bennet, when Elizabeth had read the note aloud,’ _ ” Wanda read aloud, curled up on the couch in his workshop. Tony, she could tell was listening whilst working on a new version of a prosthetic arm. ” _ ’if your daughter should have a dangerous fit of illness—if she should die, it would be a comfort to know that it was all in pursuit of Mr. Bingley, and under your orders. _ ’” The witch couldn’t help but laugh and Tony snorted. “This woman was impossible.” 

“It was common back then,” he said chuckling but not looking at her. “After all marrying their daughters was a way of protecting them from destitution.” 

“Yeah, I know but making Jane go into the rain is a little too much.” 

“Keep reading, it gets better.” 

She made friends outside the Avengers by going out town to do shop or simply driving to her classes. Tony was often too busy to go with her, so sometimes she went with Vision. It was strange not being stared at like she was in the city, maybe because they were far enough away from the bigs centers and paparazzi. 

There were still people that called her Mrs. Stark but not with more excitement than another woman, maybe because some decades ago there was another woman with the same name. Wanda was curious about her husband’s mother, a woman that had been special enough to him to name an entire foundation after. Mrs. Beeton, the owner of the bakery, was an old lady that knew practically everyone in the neighborhood since they were in diapers but when Wanda asked about Maria Stark her answer was doubtful. 

“She was a lovely... lady I guess. Never see her here as often as her housekeeper, Mrs. Jarvis. Oh, she was really cheerful. Came here with your husband when he was a kid.” 

“But you never met her? Mrs. Stark, was she always at home? What did she look like?” Wanda felt a little guilty about asking for her deceased-mother-in-law in that way. However, Tony wouldn’t give her a proper answer and she would have died of curiosity if she didn’t know more about the woman that was apparently responsible for Tony Stark not being a miniature version of his father. 

“Well, she was nothing like your husband. Some people in the town believed Mr. Stark was Ana Jarvis’ kid even.” The old woman rubbed her chin trying to remember. “She was blonde, blue eyes, petite. Obviously, the boy took the looks after his father. She was a musician for what I recall. Pianist. Traveled a lot.” 

Later, she had asked Tony about the piano in the drawing room. The answer had been vague at best, but then there was no doubt that it was his mother’s. 

“Would you play for me one day?” Wanda had asked almost jokingly. 

“Yeah, maybe one day I will.” Tony had smiled but it was an empty smile, like the ones that she had given to the team the first weeks after Pietro had died. 

Wanda told him about her family instead and for the first time in years, she could talk about them without pain. Of the mother which Pietro had been her spitting image. Of the father that used to spoiled her rotten with sweets and dolls even when there wasn’t much of that in their home. Marya had been dark-haired, brilliant and funny. Django had Wanda’s eyes, always down to Earth, thoughtful and serious. Wanda wished that she would have become something better than what she was. Something that will make them proud. 

_ But you are an Avenger,  _ her stubborn mind argued.  _ You are helping people.  _

_ Am I? _ Was being an Avenger the only way that she could atone for what she did? 

“There will be a gala for the Foundation on Saturday,” Tony said one day while they were taking lunch. “It’s to help the refugees of Sokovia, collecting funds and those things. Do you want to come with me? Or you already have plans at the Compound?” 

Wanda shrugged, telling him that it was no problem. Clint was going to spend Halloween with his kids and Natasha was with them. Sam had gone some weeks to visit his mother and Steve was… Well, doing what he always did: tracking Hydra and his missing man. Vision was with Colonel Rhodes on some mission. And her new friends were still too new to her to feel comfortable in a party alone. 

It was strange during the gala, not being recognized as Wanda Maximoff anymore. As the terrorist-made-Avenger. The poor protester that had fought for her country and redeemed a selfish man had taken over that. A fairytale story too sweet to poison with the ugly truth. 

For months, she had been dealing with the constant fear that someone would take her again to Sokovia and throw her into a cell. She noticed that the eyes of the people on Tony were different. There were false smiles and claps. Chats about how the charity was helping Sokovia, but also suspicion, anger, distrust; and the name of Ultron in more than one mouth. 

Tony had been right after all: they were comfortable with an easier scapegoat. 

She smiled and received compliments about her beautiful dress and her ‘lovely presence’ and those smiles felt bitter. When midnight was close, she couldn’t bear it any longer. 

“Can we go home?” 

“Are you alright?” Tony touched her cheek. She closed her eyes against all the glares around them. 

“I just… Want to go home. I’m tired. I can take the car if you want. You can call Mr. Hogan later,” Wanda said shrugging but her husband shook his head and squeezed her hand. 

“I will go, I can come back later, anyway.” Wanda took his arm starting to feeling quite dizzy as they went to the car. One of the doctors had said that something about it, hadn’t he? About the full places and multiples minds thinking negatively — Why was she thinking about something like that in that moment? 

Tony didn’t say anything when her head fell on his shoulder. She felt warm something over her. His jacket. 

“We should have stayed home eating some spicy dish of yours,” Wanda heard him say, amused.  

Wanda gave him a faint smile, half sleep. 

But then… Everything changed. 

Wanda didn’t feel the window breaking at first. Or the sound of the other car following them up the road. She didn’t hear Tony shout her name. She just felt him pushing her against the seat and leaning over her.

Everything went black, and the smell of the blood filled her nostrils.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **AmbitiousWitch:** Ooooh, cliffanger. Sorry not sorry. thanks for your kind reviews.


	9. Shades of Red

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **AmbitiousWitch:** Music for this chapter: 
> 
> First scene: [_Afraid of Time_ from _Interstellar_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxIaRmLLF9o). 
> 
> Second scene: [_Vanessa's dream_ from _Penny Dreadful._](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiAnmhxIrHg)

“Mrs. Stark?” A voice, an Irish voice called to her. “Mrs. Stark, are you able to talk?”

 _Who is Mrs. Stark?_ Wanda thought blearily.

“Mrs. Stark, I have moved the car off of the road,” the Irish voice continued. “My sensors say that you can move, so please, try to get up. The ambulance is coming and you have to help Boss.”

Someone was on top of her…

“Mrs. Stark!”

With Friday’s angry voice, Wanda finally became aware of the weight of the body over her and the dampness on her side. The woman made a choked sound as she pushed her husband upwards. She stared unseeing for a couple of seconds, frozen at the view of his bloody form and her own stained arm. But the blood wasn’t hers, at least not the swaths covering her arm and dress.

As if reading her mind, Friday spoke again. “Mrs. Stark, you have mild cut on your forehead and probably some bruises. The shooter didn’t hit you. Now you _have_ to listen,” the AI’s voice had never sounded so human. Even in her shock, Wanda could have imagined Friday: redhead, petite and probably slapping her physically out of her stupor. “You have to put pressure on Boss’s wound. He has lost a considerable amount of blood and the ambulance is still not there.”

After that, Wanda acted robotically, taking Tony’s jacket and dress-shirt while pressing on the large wound on the back of his shoulder. The window of the car — the _armored_ window.— was shattered into pieces. She looked at Tony’s face again when the lights of the ambulance made their presence. He looked pale. _Dead._ But he wasn’t.

Friday had said that he wasn’t.

“Mrs. Stark? We have to make some tests on your husband and tend to both of your injuries.” Wanda didn’t move when the nurse touched her arm. Her arm _covered in blood._ “Do you have any relatives that you can call? Any friends? The police was notified already.”

 _They are going to make a scandal of this._ She thought with a strange calm. Did the man say that he needed a name? Who could she call in a moment like that? The team.. The team, of course, will help her… But—

“Colonel James Rhodes,” Wanda said mechanically. “War Machine, call him. He was… He _is_ my husband’s emergency contact.” The witch looked around the emergency room. She didn’t even remember how she had got there. She got up suddenly, startling the male nurse and then sat down palpating the pockets of her coat —Tony’s coat. She quickly handed the man a mobile that she found in one of them. “Friday is there, you can ask her. She has the colonel’s number.”

The nurse nodded quickly and apologized for a moment. Another one, a woman, told her that she should have to go to wash the blood of her body after suturing three small stitches on her forehead.  

She did everything in the same way: silent, quick, and robotic.

In the bathroom she looked at herself in the mirror: her braided bun was down and her left arm and collarbone were red. She took off Tony’s coat and washed the blood with a violent urgency, trying to not break down when she saw the red in the sink.

Colonel Rhodes arrived half an hour later, with Vision. Wanda wondered if they had come by flying from how quickly they came.

“He is in surgery now,” Wanda said mechanically. She had rehearsed the answer many times to say it with a straight face. She looked up at Rhodes daring him to look at her badly, but he just nodded and said that he had to talk with the doctors. Wanda had signed the papers that allowed the doctors to make decisions for Tony’s well being. It had surprised her that he now trusted in her judgment enough to make that decision.

Natasha was the second to arrive. Her face was a stony mask but she had a notebook with her that she handled to Rhodes; apparently, she had information about their attacker.

“The police caught him close to where the car was,” Wanda heard her say. “Apparently he was trying to off himself after that.”

“Who was the man?” Wanda croaked and they turned around. Apparently, she had approached too quietly for them to tell in the bustling ward. Natasha looked at her up and down and sighed.

“His name is Brian Collins. His family died in Sokovia while they were on holiday.” The witch felt like her blood has stopped running.

“Sokovia?” she murmured. “He wanted to kill Tony for that?”

“No,” a stern voice said making them turn around. Pepper Potts entered in the room followed by Mr. Hogan. Impeccable as always, the CEO gave cold glares at the two Avengers. “He wanted to kill _you_. You were after all the reason why Ultron even succeeded in wreaking havoc and destroying the Novi Grad along with his family and hundreds of others. An eye for an eye, that’s a saying you’re familiar with isn’t it?” Wanda felt her hackles rise at the dig. “Tony just got in his way. He has a habit of doing that even for people who really don’t deserve it.”

The woman was looking at Wanda as if she was some insect that she could squish with her ridiculously high heels.

Natasha cleared her throat. Wanda liked to think it was in her defense. “Do you know how he could get a bullet that could shatter an armored car like that?”

“The doctor showed me the bullet,” Rhodes said. “I am pretty sure that we intercepted a model very similar some months ago. Hammer Tech. Not good but enough to cause harm, made with Chitauri parts.”

“Someone using alien technology to harm Tony? Yeah, that’s totally new,” Potts spat, eyeing at Wanda and turning around to leave. The witch had enough with that.

“What is your _problem?_ ”

Pepper narrowed her eyes at the witch, almost considering her for a moment before straightening, “If you really want to know my problem with you, Maximoff I’ll say it.” Pepper’s voice turned harsher. “Ever since you have come into Tony’s life, you have brought him nothing but misery and stress. He lost one of the few constants in his life thanks to what you did and then because of your precarious position in America of your own making, he ties himself to you. You are nothing but ungrateful for all he does for you even though he is wrecking the chance he has of achieving his own happiness in the process.”

“And what was that happiness? You?” Wanda hissed viciously putting herself at the woman’s height.

Pepper gives a cruel humorless laugh, “I could have made him happy. We could have fixed things. I could have fixed him! If we were just given some space and he could have opened up to me but no… you ruined it.-”

“Maybe he doesn’t w _ant_ to be fixed, Potts because he isn’t broken,” Wanda said, her eyes glowing red. “The last time I asked him if I could ‘fix’ something in him, he told me to go to hell. Maybe you should try listening more often instead of projecting what _you_ want on to him.”

“How dare you?” Potts sounded outraged. It was evident that Wanda had hit a nerve. “I have been there before Iron Man, before the Avengers and before the age of freaks like you. I know Tony, deeply and in a more intimate way that you with all your witchcraft could ever hope to understand.-”

“Okay, okay, step back, both of you,” Natasha outstretched her arms and hands to keep the two apart. “We all stressed and tired but this is not helping anyone.”

“I think that you should take Maximoff to the Compound,” Potts spat unkindly. “Places like this aren’t for hysterical little girls.”

“I’m not the one crying like a baby.” Wanda’s low pitched voice grew menacing and Natasha took her forearm as a warning.

“Anthony Stark’ family?” The doctor announced behind them.    

“I am his wife.” Wanda cut in quickly before Potts could butt in. She had to squash a smug smirk at Potts put-out expression.

“I am his… friend.” Pepper says.

The doctor looked up at them all, then down and proceeded to read a file.

“Mr. Stark is out of danger but still sedated. The bullet that we took out from Mr. Stark shoulder didn’t permanently affect the movement of his arm, but he lost a lot of blood and that made the surgery complicated. He will need rest and rehabilitation but otherwise, he will be alright.”   

“Oh thank God.” Pepper breathed Wanda looked over at her and saw a purely relieved smile come over her face. Wanda was struck deeply by how her features softened. It almost made her appear a different person. “Can we go in and see him?”

“I’m afraid, miss that it’s only immediate family only at this time. Mrs Stark,” Wanda looked up at the doctor, “would you like to see your husband?”

Wanda saw an expression come over Miss Potts face almost as though she had been slapped before her icy blue gaze snapped back to Wanda. “Well go. We will wait out here, right Natalie?”

“Don’t you want to go and come back when that hole in his shoulder is healed, Potts?” Natasha snapped back and Wanda didn’t know if she wanted to hug her or laugh.

So she offered Natasha a brief smile before making her exit. Potts looked like steam was about to come out of her ears, but Wanda knew that if Potts had an inch of self-preservation she wouldn’t retort further.

In any case, the rage disappeared when she entered the recovery room. The nurse pointed her the way and she saw Tony in the hospital bed. Wanda could have said that she had indeed seen that man in his worst moments, but she had never seen him in such a fragile state, apart from her own horrible dreams. And the time when she dreamed and wished him to be dead seemed to be ages ago.

She sat in the chair that was alongside the bed and took one of his hands and suddenly all the anguish that had accumulated in her throat just ruptured. Wanda let out a wretched sob and covered her face with her hands as she cried. The fear had been there, trapped inside of her chest and with it there was another feeling that she couldn’t name in that moment

Wanda heard steps and tried —in vain— stop crying but then a warm hand was over her shoulder. When she looked up, Colonel Rhodes was eyeing Tony with glassy eyes.

“The doctor said that he will be awake in some hours,” he said, maybe to comfort her or to point the obvious thing and that there was no grave reason to her to be crying. “It’s not the first time that he is a hospital bed and it won’t be the last. The asshole. Sometimes it seems that he is the one in the military.”

“He saved my life,” Wanda croaked wanting to laugh for a moment. God, maybe Potts was right, she was getting hysterical. “Why would he—? Why did he do it?”

The witch wasn’t looking at Rhodes anymore, but she was sure that he was looking at her like she was stupid.

“Instinct? Reflexes? He has been always a self-sacrificing asshole, so I am not surprised. I’m still trying to figure out why married you, Maximoff so I'm really the wrong person to ask .”

Wanda left go a choked laugh. “We are two on that.”

 

* * *

  
They stayed alongside the bed and talked after that. Wanda hadn’t realized that aside from training, she had never established a conversation with Colonel Rhodes, not a normal one. It was to be expected they weren’t exactly normal people. The man told her about their times with Tony in the university and how his mother was something of an high importance in both men’s lives. Wanda told him about the letters and how they were trying to cooperate with each other. The man gave her a tight smile, almost warning her how delicate was the situation thanks to her.

She might have fallen asleep after that, a hand was pressing hers and when she opened her eyes, Tony was looking at her with an exhausted excuse of a smile.

“Just my luck, can’t even get hit by the good shooters nowadays,” he quipped sarcastically. Wanda looked at him as if he had grown another head, amazed at the fact that he still had his sense of humor. She let out a fresh sob and hugged him.

Hiding her face in his neck, she held him tightly. His head turned to her as he asked. “You’re okay?”

“Me?” she said, outraged, as she pulled away. “You just _got shot._ ”

“Yeah, not the first time and not the last” he smiled, full of a pompous arrogance that irked her beyond belief...

Wait no, it wasn’t arrogance. It was a smile that was full of false confidence to calm her down. Why couldn’t she stop doing that?

“He lost someone, in Sokovia. He wanted to kill me.” Wanda whispered whilst carefully monitoring Tony’s face. “This was my fault. Why did you save me?”

“I don’t know,” he said, seriously. “But I am alive, aren’t I? No harm was done.” He tried to reassure her by patting her arm but winced as he tried to move his injured one. “Ouch, gotta get used to that. Amendment.” He looked at his injured arm back to Wanda. ”No lasting harm was done, alright?”

“Alright.” Wanda leaned over him and pressed a kiss to his forehead, but realizing what she had just done, she got up of the chair. “I am… I am going to find Rhodes.”

As Wanda left the room she was sure she saw a frown pass over Tony’s face, but he didn’t stop her from going.

She was glad he didn’t because she was so confused about how she had felt at that moment. She told herself that it was the relief, just that, he had saved her life after all.

Rhodes went to see his best friend followed by Vision, Potts and Hogan. The last two sent Wanda twin glares of distrust as if they feared that she had killed her husband in the hospital bed. Wanda made a sound of relief when they left and she could sit with Natasha.

“I thought that you were going to spend more time with him,” the redhead said as she smirked. “Your face was red, you know.”

“What?” Wanda felt her face self consciously as Natasha smiled knowingly. “It’s not. That’s ridiculous why would it be red? Me and Stark, we are good, but no. Pfft, I mean it’s not like I love him or anything-”

“That’s what I told myself for months.” Natasha snorted but Wanda felt the light mood darkening suddenly. The memory of Bruce Banner wasn’t pleasant for her, sitting and laughing alongside the woman he loved made her throat close up with a guilt.

“I’m sorry, you know, Natasha.” Natasha arched an incredulous eyebrow at the witch. “For what I did to you in South Africa and Doctor Banner, I’m so-”

“Did you see something?” Natasha interrupted her harshly, Wanda looked at her with confusion. “Of what you made me see, did _you_ see something of that?”

“No.” The witch lowered her head. “I didn’t- not all of it- I had to stay with you to see what you were seeing. I didn’t, there was not time.”

_I stayed when I got Tony and Doctor Banner. The memory of their fear will probably haunt me forever._

She didn’t dare say that out loud. Natasha’s expression became closed off, surely trying to read a lie or theatre in her apology, then she let out a sigh and rested her back on the chair.

“I don’t want anyone to fuck with my head again. Never again to feel helpless, I can’t trust you, Wanda. Not in the field, not in life. Not like Clint and Steve do.” Natasha delivered these lines coldly and bluntly but they were filled with truth which was something that Wanda could appreciate. She didn’t expect much else after what she had done to her.

“I understand that-” Wanda replied but Natasha had cut across her before she could fully vocalize her thoughts.

“But, you weren't the only one responsible for Bruce going away.” Wanda opened her eyes surprised and the spy gave her a self-loathing smile. “I pushed him down of a cliff, forcing him to turn green when I knew that he didn’t want too. He wanted us to run away. I thought we were being selfish, that _I_ was being selfish for suggesting it in the first place.”

The woman’s eyes darkened and she pressed her lips into a thin line.

“I was probably right. Without him we wouldn’t have won, but pushing him off that cliff is probably one of the many things that I am going to regret my whole life. Since it’s very likely that I am not going to see him again.” Wanda lowered her head again, because even with Natasha telling her that, the guilt wouldn’t go. She had helped Ultron to get the instruments to lift Sokovia after all; there was nothing that could delete her role in the catastrophe. “But if you want a piece of advice: Don’t do commit the same mistake that I did. Don’t use your powers or do something to Tony without his consent just because is the faster way of dealing with things or getting what you want than talking. Believe me, I took me a year and a half gain his trust after I betrayed him for the first time.”

Wanda frowned to herself. Admittedly she had been tempted to use her powers a few brief times to try to get Stark to warm up to her a little more, but they had been nothing more than brief fleeting thoughts. Part of her actually liked the whole process of talking to Stark and using that as an excuse to spend time with him…

What was happening to her?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **AmbitiousWitch:** Right, Wanda made progress with Nat! And Tony is okay guys, we are not gonna kill him (in this story). Potts got burned (she deserves that more than anyone. I'm sick of all the problems in their relationship being put in Tony) and did someone watched the horrid trailer of Infinity War too? Markus and Mcfeely, ultimate redemption arc for Wanda: living in comfort with Vision and being a redhead! Wow, I can't bear the emotion. 
> 
> Thanks for the reviews!


	10. Milestones

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to our beta: Firelord68
> 
>  **AmbitiousWitch:** Music for this chapter:
> 
> From the third scene: [_Cornfield Chase_ from _Interestellar_](https://youtu.be/zE-qxNVoUSo)  
>   
> 
> [_Travel to Edinburgh_ from _Cloud Atlas._](https://youtu.be/WVCTD4jYlS0)
> 
>  
> 
> [_The Temple of the Sacrifices_ from _Cloud Atlas._](https://youtu.be/J0AjmDTBJqg)

“Why did nobody know about this?” Trish asked passing a drink to her guest. It was already night. They have been talking all day. “If it was an attack, why your husband didn’t notify the news?”

“That man’s story would have gone out to the public too quickly,” Wanda said with a dry smile. “And the people would have started to ask questions about me, so he was charged in private and we never talked about him again. Steve thought it was the best for the team.”

“And what did you think about it?”

“What?” The dark haired woman looked at Trish like she had asked her something ridiculous.

“You and your husband were attacked, but they told you to keep it quiet. What did you think of that?”

“Obviously it was for the greater good,” Wanda answered stiffly, “but it doesn't mean I like it at all. I wanted him to be presented to the public and them to tear him apart.”

She paused a moment before a truly twisted grin stretched itself across her features. “Or for me to tear him apart myself.”

Shrugging, Wanda leaned back in the chair. “But it can never be. I can only dream… it's times like this that I hate being a hero.”

It was Trish’s chance to smile. “The irony here, Mrs. Stark, is that you and that man were the same.”

Wanda narrowed her eyes at Trish, in a expression of unspoken warning. “If I were you Miss Walker I would be very careful about how you phrase the words you are about to say next.”

“Didn’t you try to kill the Avengers? Didn’t you fight against them because the notion of protecting your country? Your brother?”

“That was different,” Wanda murmured but she was looking down at her hands. Trish smirked.

_Of course it was different for you, he’d attacked someone that you love._

“Alright,” Trish tried to force the smile off of her face. “Tell me more.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Are you sure you are okay, Wanda?” The young woman couldn’t help but sigh as she put her jacket on. It was the third time that Steve had asked that during her visit.

“I just had a minor cut, Steve. I am _fine_. I just want to go home. The traffic is awful this days” Wanda said whilst smiling tightly. Tony was going to be released from the hospital today and she had finally gone to the Compound to stop the anguish of his friends. They had called a lot while she was in the hospital, but Natasha had blissfully kept them away from it.

_God, If I had to deal with them mothering me, too, I wouldn't have been able to cope._

“Don't you want to stay longer, then?” Steve implored, “After what happened don't you want to spend some time with your friends?”

“Tony is getting out today, as you know. I would stay longer but I want to see him when he gets out.”

“Ah,” Steve smiled, but the next invitation sounded far more reluctant. “Why don't you bring him over too then?”

“I don't see it as something he'll want to do…” Wanda gave an apologetic smile. “And I don't think I want to leave him alone.”

“If you're sure.” Steve answered cautiously, “If he's… getting too much for you, you can come back here whenever you like.”

Wanda arched an eyebrow at him. “As much as I appreciate the offer Steve, remember that Tony actually owns this building too.”

She didn’t let him reply and went quickly to her car, sighing deeply when she closed the door. Even when Steve hadn’t been in the hospital, Wanda knew that he had called Tony to talk him about the accident. She didn’t have to read his mind or Clint’s to discover that they had started to talk about how she wasn’t safe living with Tony anymore. They had decided to let her attacker be judged in private, because the backlash could be dangerous about how she, an Avenger, was attacked in the middle of night with no reason. She had been angry at all of them for that.

“Welcome, Mrs. Stark,” Friday said when she arrived to the house. “Mr. Stark just arrived ten minutes earlier.”

“He is in the workshop, right?”  Wanda asked while getting out of her jacket.

“I'm afraid so, Mrs Stark. He appears to be over exerting himself, too. Despite my assurances that he would heal faster if he rested.”

_This man, I swear._

Tony was indeed in the workshop, but talking over the phone - or more like smiling falsely and responding with short sentences - and typing with his free hand.

“No I'm fine, Pepper. No, I know given the circumstances the company would give me an extension. Still, I want to get this done. Seriously I am alright. No, she's not giving me grief. Wanda has actually been great. Yeah, I wouldn't have believed it a few months ago but now I -" Tony looked up, all of a sudden he spotted Wanda’s presence and he looked like a deer in headlights. “I've got to go.”

He chuckled nervously and ruffled his hair with one hand.

“If you were going to ask if I heard you, the answer is yes.” Wanda lifted an eyebrow and couldn't keep an unconscious smile from her lips.

“Sorry. Pepper just asked how you were treating me. She worries too much.” Tony set his phone down on the desk and kept his eyes on Wanda. “Gets a little annoying at times. How was our fearless leader and his two merry spies?”

Wanda tilted her head at him. “Now she's Pepper again? The last time I heard you two speak you called her Virginia-"

“-She pissed me off last time we spoke. It was about company business, don't worry about it.” He waved her off whilst she moved forward and he took a seat.  

“Steve and Clint are overprotective too so I get your frustration with Miss Potts. Clint, I would understand as he is a father himself, but Steve that I have no clue about. It can get ridiculous.”

“Now it gets ridiculous?” he repeated her question whilst a slightly teasing smile played at his lips. “I thought you liked the support that they gave you.”

“Support is one thing, but I don’t like that they treat me like a child.” Wanda grunted but then shook her head. “Anyway, you are trying to trick me. Why are you not in bed? The doctor said that you had to rest.”

Tony chucked. “My caring wife, I am flattered by your concern.”

“I am being serious,” she said, trying to hide her own smile.

“Right.” He lifted an eyebrow at her before looking away to his desk. “What kind of husband would I be if I spent my time down here and not with my wife?”

“We're not exactly conventional,” Wanda replied before she could help herself. “But that's not the point. You need to get some rest, Doctors orders. Now up with you.”

“Really?” He grumbled as he got to his feet, Wanda subconsciously found herself hovering and watching his jagged pained movements before she forcibly turned away.

“Will you need help with getting dressed upstairs?” She asked before stiffening at his incredulous look. “Don't flatter yourself. Pietro broke his arm when we were younger and I had to help him in and out of tops till it got better. I don't have some twisted ulterior motive.”

“I never said you had,” Tony said calmly.

“Yeah,” Wanda replies sarcastically, “seriously your face says it all though… it's very expressive.”

“I wouldn't rely on reading that if you want to know what I'm thinking, darling." Tony replied shortly, “My mask can fool Natasha Romanoff and she's the best of the best.”

“You sure about that, darling? You know masks can't fool me.” She purred back playfully before she realised what she was doing.

She was flirting with Tony Stark.

Oddly, now that didn't seem to deter her or Tony either.

In their room, Wanda helped him to get out of his clothes and carefully removed the sling. He probably would have another scar because the bullet. Her mind wandered a moment to Pietro, who she couldn’t save from that fate before she internally cursed both Brian Collins and Ultron for shooting the men she cared for.

Though, when Wanda recognised that it was creepy thinking about her brother while she had Tony half naked in front of her, a faint laugh escaped her lips. She unintentionally pulled the sling making Tony hiss.

“I’m sorry! I am sorry,” she said as she helped him take off of his shirt.

She didn’t know why she suddenly felt so embarrassed. It wasn’t the first time that she had seen a man naked. But it was different to all those times in their bedroom where he had just wanted to prove that her presence didn’t scare him.

It seemed more intimate.

“It's fine.” Tony responded but his voice appeared to have gone hoarser.

She looked up to him for the first time noting how close they are. She swore she could count his eyelashes if she wished.

There was a long moment of silence between the two as they matched each other's gazes.

She knew they were close to crossing a line.

An unspoken rule between the two.

Her eyes strayed, catching the silver extensive scarring across his chest. She had seen it briefly in his displays of defiance early on in their marriage but never this close.

Never like it was something more.

“I should… I should go now,” Wanda murmured taking a step away from him. She’d helped him with his shirt. He could handle the rest of his clothes. . The witch left, very sure that she didn't want to see her own face. Friday would have laughed of her if she was human.

“Is there something wrong, Mrs. Stark?” Friday asked. Was an AI capable of teasing? Well, if Friday was able of being sarcastic…

“Everything is perfect.” Wanda was once able to lie better. Once upon a time, she knew that she has been. “Perfect.”

Later on, during dinner she and Tony spent time talking and telling each other anecdotes. While Tony seemed to still be closed up about his family, he did told her about his years in the MIT, of Jarvis -the human one- and about his aunt.

Meanwhile Wanda, for the first time in months, felt comfortable enough to talk about Sokovia in a lighter way. She told him about better times, before the riots had begun again. About how Pietro had participated in charity works ever since he was young and how he had hunted her first boyfriend.

“Protective brother, huh?” Tony commented and Wanda laughed at the light hearted memory.

“Very, but it was just a teenage dream. Then the riots began again, and there was not time for that.”

“I’m sorry,” Tony said, like if it was something instinctive.

“Don't be,” Wanda said, feeling a invisible weight over her shoulders easing. “It wasn't your fault.”

She knew it wasn't now.

Wanda realized that she liked to be in the house more than the Compound.

Her training was going well, in a way, but Wanda didn't exactly care anymore. When the first missions begun the team could not find more than empty bases.

Steve was very frustrated by this but Wanda didn't want to care. However, she knew that she had to confront her own path. Misguided or not, she had helped Strucker, but part of her just wanted to go back to Long Island, to the quiet normality of a domestic life. To her classes and her talks with Tony or Vision.

With the Avengers she was doing good, she knew it, she was helping to control a global threat but if so…

Why did she feel so empty?

Why did it felt like what they were doing was more of a superficial act rather than a heroic one?

 

* * *

 

 

It was in winter, during one mission, that the feeling started to grow stronger in her mind.

Despite the fact that the mission had been a normal one so far, Natasha had tracked what seemed to be a Hydra cell on the border of Chicago.

The team, except for Vision and Colonel Rhodes, had them trapped in a warehouse. The group consisted of less than thirty but they had weapons made of the recovered remnants of the Chitauri ship which made them a considerable threat. Especially considering the ones that Wanda saw here, she had never seen in Strucker’s palace. These seemed volatile, more of a mix of both Earth and Alien tech rather than taken straight from the Chituri.

Wanda took the weapons from their hands and made them explode a safe distance away with her powers.

She glared ferociously at the criminals. It was a matter of minutes before the Avengers had them surrounded.

“Who gave you those weapons?” Steve asked, his voice demanding, not expecting anything but cooperation as always. One of the men laughed.

“Gave us? Do you think that toys of this quality are free?”

“Who is your supplier?” Natasha asked bluntly. The man smirked and shrugged.

“Some guy in a mask, why do you care? We were minding in our business, Cap.”

 _A man with a mask?_ Wanda frowned. She was about to open her mouth when Natasha grabbed Steve’s forearm and whispered to him.

“Listen, I don't think that these guys are a Hydra cell.”

“What you mean that they aren't?” Their leader hissed. “You told us that they could be here. That _he_ could be here.”

Wanda’s suspicion had piqued  by this even more than it had been before.

“Well, I was mistaken,” the redhead hissed back, bothered by his tone.

“They may be lying,” Steve said out loud, glaring at the men.

“Or not and we got here just to find a bunch of common criminals with funny weapons,” Sam said, not leaving his place surrounding the criminals with the wings of his suit. “Let's just hand them to the police.”

“And if they are hiding information?” The captain protested. “They surely paid them to hide it. What if we can find him after this.”

“Are you suggesting that Barnes is selling Chitauri weapons, Steve?”

“You know that he might not be in control of himself, Nat.” Steve was clenching the side of his shield, like if he was reprimanding himself for having such thought.

“We don't know that,” Nat retorted.

Steve turned around and faced Wanda. ”You are right, we don't know, but she can tell us if they lying. You gotta help us, Wanda.”

“What?” The Witch murmured. She had so focused on the conversation that she had flinched when their leader called her.

“They are holding important information, Wanda,” Steve explained with a sweeter voice, as if she hadn't been there the entire time. “Just use your powers and then we hand them to the police so they can pay for their crimes.”

“Then let the police question them,” Wanda said, frowning.

“You don't understand, they won't be capable of-”

“Entering in their heads?” Wanda snapped. “Because that is what you want me to do.”

“I know that you won't hurt them, Wanda, this is-”

“You don't know anything!” she protested. “I don't know what my powers could do to them, and frankly, I thought that we had said that I shouldn't use these powers except if it was life or death. This is not. We give them to the police, or you can have Nat interrogate them. Do not use me for this.”

“Use you?” Steve looked at her with a horrified expression, but Wanda didn't let him continue, she grabbed her prisoner and walked straight to the Quinjet.

Natasha wasn't in the mood for interrogations, apparently, and the mission ended with the Avengers taking the mysterious group to the authorities. Wanda couldn't believe what she had said, but the worst thing was that she knew that it was true. Steve had always protected her and supported her but now his presence was had turned into something suffocating. Was this what she expected of all the training and talks about missions? Chasing a few rats instead of helping people?

“Chitauri weapons?” Rhodey asked when they were reunited in the meeting room. “I thought that damage control had wiped out all the shit that the aliens had left.”

“It doesn't seem to be something related to Hydra,” Natasha said. ”Maybe it’s a new arms dealer that got his hands on the rest of the Chitauri ships?”

“I will have to talk with Tony about that,” the Colonel said, frowning.

“Yeah, he sure knows about that,” Steve commented sarcastically.

“He supervised the clean up after New York, Mr. Rogers,” Vision said, “and after what happened with Stark Industries in 2008 he was more careful than ever with whatever technology in his hands. This is odd.”

“What happened in 2008?” Steve asked and both Wanda and Rhodey looked at him like he was crazy.

“I will tell him about it,” Wanda commented coolly, standing from her seat. “So, if that is all, I guess I can go home. I will see you next time, guys.”

“Wanda, wait!” Steve intercepted her when she was leaving the Compound to get her car. “Listen, I know that you didn't mean what happened in the warehouse. I know that your life at home must stressful-”

“I meant everything that I said,” Wanda snapped. “Tony has nothing to do with that. I told you before that I had decided to not use my powers like that.”

“Come on, Wanda, I know you were scared of not being supported, but now you’re good,” he said putting a hand over her shoulder. “Your gifts are wonderful and you shouldn't let anyone tell you that you are a monster because of them.”

“I got them from monsters, Steve.” The woman's voice went lower. ”The same monsters that you are trying to hunt now. Excuse me if wanting the public and the people that I care about to know I wouldn't hurt them is inconvenient for your _agenda._ ”

The witch didn't care if she was being unfair; she had been worse to other people and she knew it. Without saying another word, Wanda got into her car and left her team leader standing on park giving her a judgmental glare as she drove away.

No matter how much Wanda had tried to deny it, she knew now that the Avengers were not exactly the life that she had imagined. Of course many years she hadn't let herself imagine anything. They had been at war and the only thing that she had had for years was fantasizing about a childhood that it would never come back with the monster that had killed her family dead. Pietro had made all the decisions for her always: how and where to live, whose stand take, making their pain part of a political cause. All of that had disappeared when she got a glimpse of what power could be, but she had run  away when that same power had taken her twin away from her.

And the Avengers, more likely Steve and Clint, had been a feverish dream in which she was a little girl again. A reality where she could play the hero and stay safe and in comfort, cuddled like a little child. It was suffocating. Her ideas weren't hers, her hate wasn't important, it hadn't destroyed so many lives. Everything was so _soft_ , so _empty_ . She wasn't being blamed or defied but she also wasn't exactly doing _anything_ to improve.

It felt like limbo.

She heard music when she got to the house. A woman's voice singing softly accompanied by a piano. A smirk adorned her face at remembering that Tony listened to classical music when he thought that she was not in the house.

Wanda followed the music and surprisingly her husband was not in the workshop but in the old drawing room. Wanda had visited the room just a couple of times since it was one of the few rooms in the house that Tony had never wanted to open. The music stopped when she crossed the threshold followed by Friday’s voice but Wanda got to see the image clearly before it vanished: The piano shining new atop the older. A strange, holographic, and _ridiculously_ younger version of Tony. And between them all was the blonde woman that some descriptions and pictures had revealed, Maria Stark, standing there as she had never gone and was just ready to play another piece.

But everything disappeared as Wanda came inside.

Tony was standing in one of the corners of the room, sighing and taking off a strange pair of glasses. His eyes were slightly red but the intense glare that he gave to Wanda made her realize that maybe it was not the best moment to ask, instead she left him be the first to talk.

“Is there a storm outside?” Tony raised an eyebrow.

“What?” Wanda snapped and the man touched his head and then pointed at her hair.

The witch lift her hands to her head and suddenly left go a hoarse laugh.

“I drove here with the car’s window open.”

“In _winter?_ ”

“I needed to think. The heat was distracting.” Tony made a face that told her that he didn't quite get was she was saying. “Today Steve asked me to read the minds of some criminals.” The man stayed quiet for a moment as he closed the piano cover. Wanda continued. “I told him that I didn't want to.”

“Of course you did.” Tony appeared proud of her for this and it encouraged her to reveal more.

“He told me that it was because of you.”

“Of course he did,” Tony chucked leaving the drawing room as Wanda followed him.

“I _choose_ to not use my powers,” Wanda said taking his arm and making him turn around. “As I choose to marry you."

Tony laughed again. “I don't think that that could count as a good example. After all, you thought that you had no choice.”

“Yes I had one,” the witch said coolly. “I could have lain on the bed that I had made, but I didn't.”

Clearly Tony was getting was she was trying to say. His expression was neutral, unlike the flash of pride she saw earlier, as if he expected to her to tell him about how Steve had changed her mind.

_After all of this… He still doesn't trust me._

“If I decided to go to college, would you support me?” Wanda said suddenly, studying his expressions as they went upstairs to their bedroom.

“What?”

“Or would you tell me that is not enough for my redemption because I am not in active duty?” She continued taking off her long-coat roughly. 

“Did they tell you that?”

“No!” Wanda growled rubbing her face with her hands. “But just tell- I just feel that I am not improving anything being an Avenger anymore. I don't think I am helping people.”

“You don't think that helping with Hydra is helping?”

“You told me yourself that what was left of SHIELD wiped out Hydra, and, even if they hadn't, this is not what I imagined,” Wanda scoffed with bitterness. “I didn't imagine just chasing some criminals around that is--”

“Vigilantism,” Tony finished crossing his arms.

“Weren't the Avengers vigilantes?” She asked, remembering her days in Sokovia.

“The Avengers were created during the crisis in New York, Wanda, to contain an alien threat. We never worked together again till after the fall of SHIELD. We surely didn't work in the streets like Rogers seems to like to do now.”

“And you? What did you do as Iron Man before that?”

“Apart from being slowly dying? I was cleaning up the mess of my weapons and helping against big terrorist threats mostly. Some things are better for the police.” Tony was frowning, obviously not getting the point.

“But you had a life with that, you still have.” She wanted to push the truth from someone and she knew that she wouldn't get it from the others.

“Of course I had a life.I have a company and people that depend on me, but Wanda what is the point of this?!”

“I don't think that I want to be an Avenger anymore!” he snapped, falling down on the bed. Tony blinked, as he didn't believe what he was hearing. “At least, I don't want to be in the field. I don't think I am helping anyone there.”

“Wanda…”

“Please don't contradict me on this, Tony!” The witch cried out pulling her hair, agitatedly. “Today I almost broke a promise that I made with myself, just because Steve ordered it. And for what? To interrogate some rats with weird weapons. How does that help Sokovia or Johannesburg? How does that help _me?_ I am trapped! Trapped again using my powers just for someone else to get what they want!

It's just… I don't want to stay forever and believe that the only way that I can improve is by giving my whole life to this.”

 _I want more,_ she realized, looking at her husband like she had made a discovery. _I want a real life._

Taking a deep breath, Wanda stood up of the bed and walked firmly towards him. She was breathing hard but her face was determined.

She was at just in inches from his face. Her voice was soft and firm.

“I will get an education and a life out of the Avengers,” Wanda said, imagining every day that she had took the training as the most important thing in her life.

“As you wish.”

“And I want to volunteer to help people, in hospitals, community centers, all that kind of stuff. Just like your mother did.” Tony flinched a little at the mention, but then he nodded.

“If I can do that,” Wanda’s voice became softer, “with my powers that would be great but even without them I… want to be more. Do you get that? _You_ are not forcing me into this.”

“I doubt I anyone can force you into doing anything, darling,” Tony murmured. His eyes seemed to shine with understanding.

“No, no one is forcing me into this,” Wanda hissed and smashed her lips on his.

First, he didn't kiss her back. Maybe it was the surprise, because it was the first time that she had done anything more than an awkward kiss on the cheek.

For a moment, she thought that he would push her off, hissing for her to not come close to him and suddenly Natasha’s warning crossed her mind like lightning. But before Wanda could back off and apologize, Tony took her waist and kissed her back. She grabbed the sides of his shirt and pushed him against the wall, almost biting him. Her hands went down to his chest and the buttons of his shirt. Tony helped her to get rid of her heavy sweater and her under shirt, softly caressing the skin of her stomach. Wanda giggled at the sensation, holding him and kissing his cheek. Tony snorted too, pressing his forehead against her shoulder.

“I wish I could trust you,” he whispered pressing kisses on her shoulder. “I wish that everything around me wouldn't be telling me that I have to be afraid of your freedom. That I will perish in the moment that you consider me a new cage.”

“It's of me in a cage of what _they_ have to be afraid of,” Wanda said and cupped his face with her hands. “If you wish to trust me then do it. Trust me. Don't be afraid of me.” She kissed him again, trying to do smoothly. Where her eyes shining red? She hoped not. Her under-shirt ended on the floor along with Tony’s shirt.

“I am not afraid of you,” He gasped as he took her bra. Wanda held him again, pressing their bodies together. A gasp escaped of her mouth when he cupped one of her breasts. “I’m afraid of… Whatever this is.”

The witch snorted. “Well, whatever this is. It has us both caught.”

She supposed that neither of them had imagined their first time together like this… Maybe because they hadn't imagine it at all. Other married couples probably tell the other how much they loved each other and weren't a mess of laughs, embarrassment, and poorly worded declarations. But it was what they had got and for every kiss, every trust and every sigh, the once hatred and mistrust seemed to be far away. There was only them in that room. And Wanda knew, even she collapsed over him and he held her against his scarred chest tighter than ever, that she wanted more.

She wanted so much more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **AmbitiousWitch:** During the movies, we don't exactly see Tony doing vigilantism ala Daredevil, to name an example. His missions are almost always "biggies" with some terrorist that decided that he is guilty of all the traumas in their lives or some catastrophe. But outside AoU, we don't see him in the field like Rogers and the others just chasing this rando terrorist. So I made the conclusion that Tony is called by the governments for his missions when a normal squad can't do it and later he goes on with his life. Even if is just making more suits. Contrary of Rogers and co that just take missions out of nowhere like with what happened with Lagos.
> 
>  I probably wrote the sex scene a hundred of times until I realised that I am physically incapable of writing this two having 'tender' sex. It's just impossible.
> 
> The delay is completely my fault. Since December I got stuck in the Star Wars fandom with the new movie and my OTP being canon. And as a content creator I had a lot to do, edits, fanvids, metas, etc. And to be honest, after watching a good written movie with wonderful actord and compelling character's arcs, it's difficult to come back to Marvel and see... Whatever they are doing. 
> 
> And of course, it had been also a lot of drama and I got a massive writer's block but now we are back. I promise that this story will not stay WIP. Indeed we maybe and in five or six chapters ahead.


	11. Murderer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **AmbitiousWitch:** Thanks to our beta for correcting my ignorance about American college.
> 
> Music for this chapter: Third scene: [_The Wormwhole_ from _Interstellar_.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtSOtcawcfM)
> 
> Fourth scene: [_Where Do I Stand_ from _The White Queen._](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FXQiyaRA80&index=13&t=0s&list=PLKSpEFz5SAQPwGLsC2R-87OP-01ORtulH)

“You have a call from the Avengers Compound, Mrs. Stark.” Wanda groaned when she heard Friday’s voice and moved lazily in the bed.

“What do they want? Did you tell them that I have work to do? And college?” She hadn't been to the Compound since December, after that mission with the Chitauri weapons when she had told Steve that she needed time to live as a civilian. That her presence with the Avengers was _just_ in case of a global crisis. He had protested a _lot_ \- as did Clint via phone -  but Wanda stood firm to her decision and shouted them down when they had tried to bring Tony to the conversation. She was not that girl wracked with indecision in Sokovia anymore; the decision was hers.

She got a vacancy in a college taking literature and creative writing courses, inspired by all that time writing and reading letters. She also wanted… Some day to have a voice in the word that wasn't tainted by blood. To talk about Sokovia and what her people had suffered, because of them… And because of her too.

She had a makeover – Tony and Nat didn't seem to like it – lightening her hair and stopping using so much dark makeup. The woman that entered in those classrooms and volunteered for hospital works didn't seem like Wanda Maximoff at all.

But she was, and Wanda had never felt so free.

“It’s Ms. Romanoff, ma’am,” Friday said, interrupting her daydreaming – even when it wasn't day, yet.

“Okay, put her through.” Wanda took a deep breath trying to make her voice not sound so hoarse. “Yes, Natasha, what is going on?”

“Where you sleeping?”

“It’s four in the morning, Nat, of course I was sleeping,” Wanda said whilst eyeing Tony, who seemed to be still asleep. “Is a global catastrophe?”

“No, but I need you to back me up today. We might have found Barnes finally.”

“I told Steve that–”

“This isn't about Steve or at least, it’s not what he thinks,” the spy protested harshly, then sighed. “I need you in case of… Somebody getting compromised. Do you understand? This can end in blood and I don't want to it to happen again. I have already a dead body from my first encounter with the Winter Soldier. This isn't me asking you to interrogate some street rat. You know what he is capable to do.”

Wanda bit her lip. “Why don't you tell Rhodes to send a special unit after him, Natasha? Or contact Fury? They know about Barnes and if he is a war hero they can help him.”

“Steve would never forgive me if Barnes ends up behind bars” Natasha muttered.

“And if Barnes is not the one compromised?” Wanda asked and gritted her teeth.

“Then do what it takes, too,” Natasha said, her voice low and cold. That voice wasn't Natasha the friend but Natasha the professional. “You know how the UN is putting pressure on us. We can't afford more mistakes.

“Alright, I will be there.” Wanda hung up the phone and saw Tony looking up at her from his side of the bed.

“Is the world ending?” he asked with a hoarse voice.

“No, I am needed as back up. Just for  today.” Wanda closed the distance between them and gave him a little smile. “Can you email my professors for me and let them know that I won't be able to go today?”

“I am at your service,” he mumbled and Wanda let out a little laugh.

“No jokes, they will murder me. They think their classes are oh-so-important.”

“Maybe I can tell them that I was the one that kept you busy,” Tony said with a smirk and Wanda snorted and planted a kiss on his lips.

“Yeah, maybe you can.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

The flight to Lagos was tense, as if somebody had taken the oxygen inside the Quijet. Wanda asked why Vision and Rhodey weren't present, and Steve replied coolly that Viz was visiting his ‘mom’ Dr. Cho and that anyways he was a little too ‘visible’ for this kind of mission.

_Or maybe he would end the things too quick._

Rhodes was apparently not present because a disagreement. None of them answered why, but Natasha gave Wanda a look of warning so she wouldn't ask again.

When they arrived, the boys and Natasha went to Barne’s alleged location to start setting up a perimeter. Wanda was to remain on the jet. She had protested being excluded from the main force, remembering Nat’s warning but Steve had gave her a cold glare and told her that it was an _order._ And that _she_ had been the one that wanted to stay out of their missions.

She didn't care, she just wanted it to end.

And like a prayer answered, a voice sounded in the moment though the Quinjet’s radio. “Romanoff, do you copy? Hello?” it said.

Wanda looked everywhere but the team was already en route. She took the radio. “Hello, this is the Scarlet Witch, Romanoff is busy now.”

“The witch? What the h– Is Romanoff there? I have data for her, about a guy that she has being looking for.”

“I will give it to her,” Wanda said firmly and heard the man mumble.

“Okay, lady, tell her that Rumlow is selling chemical weapons in Nigeria. He calls himself Crossbones now.” Wanda nodded.

“That's all?” she asked.

“No, tell her that her missing man is not in Africa but Europe,” he said simply. Then, he cut the comm line. Wanda froze as she realized the team was back already. Steve was gritting his teeth, obviously furious and Sam seemed tired. Natasha seemed relieved.

“Who was that?“ the spy asked as she lifted her chin at her.

“It was for you– Sorry but it seemed important. About a man called Rumlow, your contact said that he is here in Lagos. Selling chemical weapons.”

“Rumlow?” Steve snapped at Natasha, he appeared both furious and incredulous. “I thought you said your contacts couldn't track him down.“

“Well, it seems they did,” Natasha said coolly. “We can locate him from here next time–”

“Next time?! We are taking him down now before he can hurt anyone else,” the captain snapped as he got in the pilot seat.

“Steve we need to issue an evacuation to deal with someone like that. If Rumlow has chemical weapons here, now, and he sees you, he is going to be after blood–”

“That's why we have to stop him now, before he goes somewhere else.” Steve interrupted her again. “Wanda, you two should change, we would need you undercover. Nat will help you. This mission can still be good for your training.”

Wanda closed her fists and tried to resist the impulse of screaming at him.

_What training? I learned all on my own._

Natasha was looking at Steve with a stony expression. Something had changed in her eyes and Wanda didn't need her powers to know what word had formed in her mind.

_Compromised._

 

* * *

 

 

"All right, what do you see?" Steve’s firm voice had asked her just after she had looked around and judged herself to be safe from evesdroppers.

"Standard beat cops. Small station. Quiet street. It's a good target.” Wanda made sure not to speak too loudly as she answered. There was a woman sitting alone and watching the street like herself a short distance away who she suspected could be listening in.

“There's an ATM on the south corner, which means?" Steve prompted.

"Cameras.” Wanda lifted a hand to her mouth whilst she said this so anyone trying to listen in or lip read would have a harder job of doing that.

“Both cross streets are one-way.” Natasha nodded.

“So, compromised escape routes.” Sam said through the radio. That would make it harder for both Rumlow and them to get out if they needed to.

“Means our guy doesn't care about being seen. He isn't afraid to make a mess on the way out.” Steve commented, Wanda frowned. How was he so sure that Rumlow would do anything when he’d remained under the radar for so long? Steve’s voice hardened before softening a little when he asked, “You see that Range Rover halfway up the block?"

"Yeah, the red one? It's cute."  She looked down at her cup and wondered why their opponent would choose such a conspicuous colour.

"It's also bulletproof.” Wanda’s eyes widened at Natasha’s voice. She knew that woman a few tables away was suspicious. “Which means private security... which means more guns, which means more headaches for somebody. Probably us."

Wanda had to stifle a smile and allowed a touch of arrogance to colour her voice. "You guys know I can move things with my mind, right?"

"Looking over your shoulder needs to become second nature," Natasha retorted whilst giving her a tight smile.

"Anybody ever tell you you're a little paranoid?" Sam’s voice asked Nat light heartedly over the com.

 

"Not to my face. Why? Did you hear something?” Natasha answered in a mock anxious tone.

“Eyes on target, folks. This is the best lead we've had on Rumlow in six months. I don't want to lose him.” Steve’s voice came through anxious and uptight over the com whilst Wanda looked to Natasha and bit her lip.

Sam laughed. “If he sees us coming, that won't be a problem. He kind of hates us.”

“Sam... see that garbage truck? Tag it." Steve said in a controlled voice.  
  
"That truck's loaded for max weight. And the driver's armed. It's a battering ram.” Sam’s voice was anxious, and dread filled now, no longer easy-going. Wanda’s eyes widened as she looked back forward.

_‘Oh god, what could that do?’_

“Go now." Steve ordered.

" - What?” Her eyes darted subconsciously to the ear in which her com was attached to.

“He's not hitting the police.” Was the last thing she received from Steve as clarification.

‘ _But if he’s not hitting the police… that means he is going to go for the medical institute. Shit._ ’

Wanda leapt to her feet and set off North of the Cafe. She would have asked Nat if she wanted a lift there but Nat was already in the process of stealing a motorcycle.

Having sprinted a good distance, Wanda then leapt and shot her powers from her hands to give her sustained flight over the top of the medical structure.

She took note of Sam and Steve talking about the number of hostiles before she landed.

Effortlessly, the witch redirected her telekinesis to form a force field that stopped the bullets in their tracks before she paralysed her hostile.

“Sam!” She alterted her teammate before she sent the hostile careening upwards into him.

“Rumlow's on the third floor.” Sam informed Steve as he moved away and got into position.

“Wanda,” Steve pointed to her. “Just like we practised."  
  
"What about the gas?" She asked. 

"Get it out."

With that the witch needed no further cue to secure his leg and arm with her powers and send him up into the building through a window.

She then sat to concentrate on encouraging every last bit of toxic gas out and up to disperse in the atmosphere whilst Sam covered her. Soon Sam had to leave her once the hostiles were dealt with. Wanda paid no attention other than a passing awareness. She had to work hard on now separating the toxic gas high up in the air so that it wouldn’t effect the people below.

Once it was dispersed, Wanda rushed to her teammates aid, she used her powers to fly up high to land behind Steve who appeared to have Crossbones by the top half of his padded jacket.  
  
“He said to me…” Crossbones hissed in a gravelly malevolent voice. “'Please tell Rogers. 'When you gotta go... you gotta go.' And you're coming with me."

Wanda knew what he was about to do the second before he did it. She bet Steve would have known too if he had been thinking clearly.

She gathered up her reserves and worked hard to contain the blast from the suicide bomb Crossbones implanted in his thick jacket.  
  
But it was too much.

The witch had used a lot of her reserves before, but at that moment she had to focus on too much; sustaining the blast, focusing on Steve and the public below.

She had no choice but to try and lift it up to get it away.

The medical centre was filled with screams when the bomb pulverized the flat in which the bomb had landed. Screams of minds filled with pain invaded her head. And she was again in her own building, being held by Pietro, listening her parents and the people inside dying.

_No._

"Oh, my... Sam... we need Fire and Rescue on the south side of the building. We gotta get up there." Steve’s voice sounded in her earphone, but she wasn't listening. All she could hear were those _screams_.

_No, no, no._

It couldn't be happening again.

 _One of the shells fell right in front of us._ Pietro’s voice sounded in her mind. _And at end all you could read a single word._

 _Stark,_ her own voice filled with hate had said.

Wanda’s hands went to her mouth as she fell to her knees. Around, everyone was screaming, people were running. But she could just hear the screams in her mind. She covered her ears and rocked herself, repeating a single word.

_No._

 

 

* * *

 

 

“She is in shock,” Natasha said harshly to Steve when he tried to approach her. The spy took Wanda's arm and got her up gently. “We have to go.”

“All those people… “ Wanda muttered.

“There's ambulances here, I have called Tony and he is contacting the government. They want us to go _now_ ,” Natasha whispered to her lowly, in somewhat of a reassuring voice.

“Steve, grab me that foil now or perhaps a blanket.” She distantly heard Natasha order Steve. Wanda saw Steve’s worried face in her vision before he was gone again.

“Up, Wanda. The people is starting to group, and it will not be much until they attack us.” Natasha put her jacket over the witch’s arms and helped up again. Wanda hadn’t realized she’d dropped again to the ground. “You can't use your powers here or everything will get worse. C’mon.”

How could it get any worse?

Steve didn't say a word during the flight back home. He just maintained a blank expression and occasionally looked at Wanda.

When they were back in the Compound there were no words to say for many of them. Sam was looking down, probably thinking over how they missed Rumlow’s bomb or any other way they could have dealt with the unplanned mission better. Natasha was resting her head in her hands but her eyes were cold and lethal. Wanda didn't have to read her mind to know what she was thinking; her source - the one who’d first told them Barnes had been in Lagos - something was suspicious about them.

“Listen,” Steve opened his mouth for the first time in hours, and the Avengers turned their heads at him at the same time.

“It's my fault. I should have noticed that jacket. Rumlow said ‘Bucky’ and I was that sixteen years old kid in Brooklyn again.”

He got up from his chair and looked out of the window to the dark, empty outside of the Compound.

“This job... We try to save as many people as we can. Sometimes that doesn't mean everybody. But if we can't find a way to live with that, next time…” he turned around and gave them his serious Captain America stare. ”Maybe nobody gets saved.”

Sam gave him a nod, saying that in missions it was always a possibility to lose people. Natasha didn't say anything. She was just staring a Steve with a frown.

Wanda wasn’t about to nod along with Steve. “So, that is what you are going to tell them? To their families? That they have to be grateful?”

“Wanda… “

“No! Do not ‘Wanda’ me. This wasn't a sudden catastrophe or a well-conceived mission. This was _your_ stubbornness and _your_ inability to _wait_. Nat told you we needed an evacuation and you didn't listen! You never listen when something is already in your head,” she hissed.

“Wanda, I know you are under a lot of pressure but you shouldn't–” Steve started to argue against her. Wanda jumped of her seat, clenching her fists and using all her self-control to not lash out.

“ _Pressure?_ Do you call having fresh blood on my hands _pressure_?” she hissed.

“I told you that it was my fault, I should have seen the bomb–”

“You shouldn't have been there at all!” Wanda yelled. “Don't you understand? It was a trap. He knew that you were going to go like a bulldozer because you never use your head to think of a better plan. He knew that you were willing to put people in danger!” Steve flinched at her tone and Wanda got closer to him.

“If you hadn't appeared there he wouldn't have done anything. He only blew that vest because he saw _you_.  Special forces could have grabbed him without deaths but you had to be hero! Right?! Well, congratulations!” she said making a bow. “You are the hero, Steve Rogers, and I am going to be blamed for those deaths.”

“You saved many lives today, “ he said softly, as if he was talking to a child throwing a tantrum. “They are not going to paint you as a villain knowing that it could have been more deaths.”

Wanda let go a cruel laugh. “No? You wanna bet? I am an obscure Avenger with a questionable past. You are the American Golden Boy. Whose hands do you think that they are going to put the bomb in?”

Steve paled and didn't say anything. Wanda scoffed and looked at Sam and Nat, almost forcing them to contradict her. But no one them said nothing.

The witch pressed her lips in a thin line and announced that she was going back to her home.

“I will take you home.” Natasha got out of her seat and raised a hand when Wanda opened her mouth. “No discussion. You were in shock. You shouldn’t be behind a wheel.”

Wanda knew better than to protest that. Her mind kept racing and flashing back - even now - to that building and those people's deathly haunting screams…

In the car, Natasha didn’t say anything or try to defend what she had said to Steve. Instead of that, she sighed. “It was my fault. My source led us into a trap.”

“They are not going to blame you for that,” Wanda murmured.

“No, but the best thing that you can do is keep your head low for now. I will try to make the team do the same,” Natasha responded in a hard forcefully even tone.

“It’s not going to work,” the witch coolly.

“Maybe not, but it's all I can do for now.” Wanda couldn't help but notice Natasha’s hands tighten a fraction on the steering wheel as she said this.

Tony wasn't home when she arrived, which was not a surprise, considering the mess that the Nigerian government must have been putting on him. Friday informed her that he had stayed in a hotel.

Wanda didn't have the strength to call him. Not in that moment.

She entered in the shower and let the hot water clean the sweat and rest of grime from her skin. She felt the temperature of the heat scorch her back, a tiny malevolent part of her mind whispered that she deserved it.

The screams of the people in the medical centre mixed up with the sound of the water beating down. Wanda closed her eyes and covered her ears. She couldn't let her powers affect her like that. It wasn't supposed to be in that way.

But when she opened her eyes, the spray of the shower was red.

Red as blood.

The witch screamed and scrambled out from the shower. She had to grab the sink to keep from tumbling to the ground as her feet slipped on the water..

It was only a miracle that meant she managed this without breaking her neck in the process. She took a deep breath and looked up to the mirror, tripping back again in horror.

There was a girl behind her, dark skin, curled hair. Covered in rubbish and blood.

Wanda had seen her before…

In Lagos…

A girl taken by the firemen, then put in a black bag.

“No…” Wanda murmured.

“You didn't save me,“ the girl said and Wanda shook her head. Suddenly the girl seemed to get small, paler, not longer with African features but plain brown hair and green eyes. Alongside her it was a dark haired boy, both of them covered with white dust.

Wanda was seeing Pietro and her own, young, dark, hate filled eyes.

Her younger self looked at her, her expression twisted as she opened her mouth to say a single word.

“Stark.”

Then Pietro’s face morphed, growing tanned, older. A face she knew very well.

“You never learned, didn't you?” Doctor Banner said, his eyes glowed an angry threatening green. “No matter what you do. They will always come for you.”

“Stop, stop it. “ The woman fell on her knees in the cold floor, covering her ears and cradling herself. “Stop it, please!” She screamed.

And then she was alone, wet and naked, but alone. What was wrong with her? How could she lose control of her powers like that?

But when she looked at the mirror again there was no hallucination, just a word, written roughly with her red lipstick.

That was when she really screamed, not realizing that she had taken the lipstick from the side and wrote the word herself.

It was the word what really broke her.

A word that would never leave her.

_Murderer._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Ambitious Witch:** Okay, we entered in the CW arc.
> 
> *bleugh*
> 
> Okay, my main problem with Lagos aside from being a stupid closterfuck that could have being prevented if Rogers would have used his brains for five minutes, is that we are supposed to be sorry that Wanda tried to save people but failed and killed them, is that the Markus and Mcfeely very lazy as fuck and never mentioned that she had killed people before. Like? Just two minutes mentioning Johannesburg as a past sin could have cleared up that bullshit but nooooooo we need more time of Rogers wangsting about Barnes.
> 
> What happens to Wanda here is not only a flashback but that she _did_ lost control of her powers... Except that they backfired in her own mind, showing her her worst fears. Also, I remember Lizzie Olsen saying that Wanda also can feel emotions so I added it too. Basically, she got overwhelmed and fucked with her own mind. 
> 
> Oh, also, when Little!Wanda calls her Stark, she is referring at Wanda's actual name. Just in case that it was confusing.
> 
> Thanks for the reviews.


	12. Lead Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **AmbitiousWith:** Sorry guys for the long wait, this chapter took us quite long because we are changing several things of the movie and because we quite busy we real life and our other projects. 
> 
> Music for this chapter: Just for the final scene, [_You Came for Me_ from _Byzantium_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhz8OPNCmi4&list=PLJeNtFgpFFd3nZrf7xUYOQksBADxx1HRS&index=13&t=0s)

She had barely consigned her sleep when Tony arrived. 

Friday had been worried about her, as worried as an AI could be. Wanda didn’t need for her know what had happened to her. She knew from what had happened the first days testing her powers in Sokovia. The emotions around a large group of people could overwhelm Wanda  if she had been using her powers actively. She gave a simple, technical answer enough to calm down the AI. Wanda didn’t need to tell her the shards of pain and guilt that were carving through her chest or how her voice was hoarse from the screaming. She was grateful that the house was a little isolated from the others, otherwise the neighbors would certainly have called the police. 

She had cleaned the lipstick, sloppily, all off the mirror, because she didn’t want questions from Tony. Friday would probably tell Tony what had happened anyways, the vision of that word written by her own hand…

Wanda didn’t want to remember the  image of herself as child, repeating the words that were said in Sokovia all those years ago. 

It was clearly some bad ironic joke that her powers had played on her mind. Wanda laughed because otherwise she would have probably started to scream again. 

“You alright?” Tony asked carefully whilst turning the lights on. Wanda snorted and sat curled up in the bed with her chin touching her knees. 

“Do I have a record now?” 

“What?” 

“How many people died in Lagos?” she spat. 

“Wanda…” 

“How many?!” the witch raised her voice. She heard her husband sighing before he answered. 

“Twenty six.” Wanda twisted her head and looked at him through the tears in her eyes. He looked like shit too. What a pair they were. “Plus thirty two wounded.” 

The woman snarled again but it came out like a sob. 

“Death follows me like a shadow. I should be contracted for it, Tony. The Merchant of Death. Do you mind if I borrow the moniker?” 

“Stop it.” Tony sat up and tried to hold her but Wanda pushed him away. 

In response, he almost drew away before she took his face in her hands, trying to read any lie or false pity on his expressions. 

“Are you going to tell me that it wasn't my fault?” The witch hissed. “That I did what I could? That I saved more people that I killed, and I won’t save anyone again if I think about it?” She let out a frustrated sob and almost scratched his jaw with her nails. “Because that is what Steve told me. He said it that like they didn’t matter, like  _ I  _ am not going to be the one painted as a monster.” 

“We are painted as a monsters anyways unless we have a golden record like Cap.” She thought she could hear a bitter note Tony's voice but it was gone quickly. “Wanda, you know how things are.  You had good intentions but that don't change that people died today. That is how the media - and the world at large -thinks.” 

He took her wrists slowly and brought her hands down from his face. There was no trace of mockery or sarcasm in his voice but neither was there any pity. 

Tony wasn’t going to tell her that everything was alright or that she wasn’t the  monster or weapon that her guilt was screaming she was. After all, who had said that to him? Wanda herself had gloated when he had left the rooms of the Compound those first months every time that the team’s judgemental comments or cold gazes had passed over him. 

No, Tony wasn’t going to coddle her. It wasn’t entirely her fault, she knew that, but still. Wanda sighed and pressed a kiss in the corner of his mouth as a thank you. He wasn’t going to ease her guilt and it was safe to admit to herself that it was he best for her, because Wanda didn’t want it. She wanted to know that she was capable to  _ feel it _ , that she wanted to know that she still had some sort of human decency inside. 

Absolving herself completely of Lagos could lead to her excusing herself for causing Johannesburg and Ultron. Wanda was convinced that she didn’t want to know what kind of being she would have become if she wouldn’t have felt guilt for any that. 

They stayed a long time in the bed. Wanda rested her back on his chest as Tony’s fingers played over her hand. 

Insomnia seemed to be something that both had in common now. 

“What did they say?” she asked finally after a long silence. “Are they going to arrest me? The team?” 

“The UN wants to talk with the team about the Accords. I told Nat that she has to make them aware.” 

“About time,” Wanda said. She never understood how Steve didn’t still know about them. They had been all over international news for almost five months. “And me? Are they going to strip me of the citizenship? Does Ross want me as a guinea pig?” 

Tony had warned her about the Secretary of State, stating that he was an old snake and that had done horrible things to Dr. Banner.

She had taken Tony's warning and read up on Ross. His position made it impossible for him to confront them with his bigotry directly, but that didn’t mean that he had stopped his anti-enhanced individual's propaganda. 

Tony sighed whilst he pressed the bridge of his nose with his fingers. “All day I have been trying to take care of that. Ross tried to spread some shit conspiracy theory about how you and Nat were Soviet spies that sabotaged the Good Captain America’s mission with false intel and a bad strategy.”

“What?!” Wanda yelped.

“ _ Then _ he used his old trick and said how the Avengers are vigilantes and that even if people sees them as heroes, the majority of the world consider them vigilantes.” Wanda didn’t mention that Tony excluded himself from the Avengers. When she turned around to face him again, she noticed that he was serious. 

“You agree with him,” she said, it was not accusatory, she has just seen it in his eyes. 

“I agree with the representatives of the invaded countries that were already claiming it before he even started talking,” Tony replied as he pursed his lips into a thin line. “The Nigerian government wanted Rogers and you, but I told them that the deaths would have been worse had you not intervened.” 

“So what do they-?”

“They called for a public apology,” Tony said slowly as if he waited for some outrage on her part, but Wanda just nodded. “And house arrest.”   

Wanda tensed up. “House arrest? For how long?”

“I don’t know, darling. Maybe a month, maybe a year, when they have forgotten it.”

“And if they never forget it?” the witch murmured surly to which Tony snorted. 

“Oh, believe me, they will. Just wait until the next catastrophe that has another person to blame.” 

Wanda sighed. She knew she didn’t have another alternative. If she wasn’t careful she was just going to be dragged through the worst of the mud. 

“Okay, I guess I can stay here. I will miss the college to be honest, but maybe I can write--” 

“I think is better for us to come back to the Compound. They don’t trust you close to civilians,” Tony explained softly. 

Wanda frowned, turning around and curling back in on herself. “ _ This  _ is my home. Our home,” she insisted. 

“They want you to stay in a isolated place, Wanda. Even this place is too close to the public.” 

“And you didn’t object?” Her voice turned sharp.

“I actually think that it’s a good idea.” She twisted around to glare at him, “No! Hear me out, I will be out most of time with all this mess, so I’ll sleep better knowing that--” 

“That I am not a danger?” she hissed angrily. Her powers instinctively buzzed at the back of her eyes. 

“That there won’t be another Brian Collings,” Tony said softly. Wanda bit her lip as the energy faded and she remembered her own anguish that night. 

“You are acting as if you aren’t the one who got shot,” The witch whispered. With a long sigh, she wrapped her arms around him. “I can take care of myself.” 

“I know, but I don’t want you to be under the mercy of these people because somebody attacked you,” Tony said and kissed her forehead. “I promise I will try to make it better.” 

“I hope so, Tony, I hope so.” 

Getting the situation better wasn't going to be easy for either of them but the witch was sure that they could do it.  

* * *

 

Going back to the Compound had been a nightmare at first.

Wanda had just being able to take some of her books and her guitar, since the place already had all her home comforts after all. But even when the room had that, it still felt strange living with the Avengers again after months of getting used to Tony's company. 

She wouldn't talk to Steve aside from some cold courtesy responses. She hadn't forgiven him. The fact that he acted as if Lagos hadn't happened and that they were still a some sort of well balanced team got on her nerves. He also seemed to be getting on Nat’s nerves too, since he made excuses for every time that the spy tried to talk about the Accords, saying that he wasn't “good” dealing with “other people's agendas.”

Tony and Nat were always out and as Wanda’s house arrest begun after her public apology, she started to cherish Vision’s company. Rhodes had commented that it was the best for the android to stay out of Ross’s radar. Legally Tony's son or not, an artificial intelligence with a practically indestructible body wasn't something that the people would look favourably to at the moment. 

Beforehand, Wanda had told herself to be strong when the moment of her declaration came. The truth was that she had shaken and almost broke into tears when she had looked at the Nigerian ambassadors and people that just remembered her as a destructive force that was responsible of the death of twenty six of their countrymen. 

She had faced that alone; without Steve excuses, without Natasha's pragmatic reasons, and without Tony's support. 

When she had came back to Compound and the privacy of her room she had let herself finally cry. 

Little good moments that they had after that were always some rare break. Break of the negotiations about the Accords, breaks of watching the international channels still spitting over her. 

Wanda had managed to have some good moments with the team again. Some dinners and movie nights. One in particular had being an embarrassing accident while she and Tony had been… intimate and Vision had entered in their room by phasing through the walls. Wanda had thanked whatever entity was up there that she still had her bra on at least. 

Stunned, poor Vision stared at his father and her with a traumatised expression on his face. At first he opened and closed his mouth like fish then hastily made to disappear back to the other side of the wall like a ghost, awkwardly stammering apologies as he went.

Wanda and Tony had laughed until their throats hurt. 

Of course, one hour later the event had become that night’s subject of gossip in the Compound. Apparently Vision had been overheard asking Sam how to avoid messing up like that… The rest had leaded to questions. Tony had saved himself by being out, but Wanda had covered her face with her hands while she tried to not laugh at Steve’s pale and mortified expression. Natasha had let out a barking laugh that made them all jump. 

Clint thankfully wasn't there, and when he came back to the compound none of the others thought to fill him in.  _ Thank God.  _

Although, at one point she was sure he had found out when he had insisted to talk to her alone in her room. However, that turned out to be just him telling her that he had arranged some leave from the Avengers with Steve and was taking his family for a skiing holiday in the Alps

The witch had surprisingly mixed feelings about it. She was relieved in a sense that she wouldn't have to deal more with his insistent infantalization, but he was her friend and she didn't want to see him go, especially not now when being in the compound made her feel alone.  

She started to write some things. Memories and phrases about her time in Sokovia. About her own guilt. A letter to Dr. Banner apologizing for everything. Other letters to the people that surely didn’t want her apologies. 

The media didn’t take pity on her even with her public apology. The questions about what she was doing and what authority an  _ enchanted individual  _ like her had to operate in Nigeria were never ending, as well as the people interviewed and yelling curses at her. But what burned the most was the King of Wakanda’s statement about his eleven countrymen killed during Lagos. 

_ Victory at the expense of innocents is not victory at all.  _

How would the Avengers survive that? How would Nat convince Steve to compromise when he had made very clear that they did what they could do and that they should keep going without looking back because that would mean that they should stop? 

It didn’t seem to affect him, as if just calling the ambulance during that horrible day was enough. Enough to reduce the pain, enough to shirk responsibility for the damage? She saw Steve watching the news sometimes, but he didn’t seem to catch the gravity of the situation. He seemed to believe that they did what they had to do. The problem was that it wasn’t enough. His ‘missions’ weren’t making people grateful enough to forget it. To them, it wasn’t about safety, it was about the Avengers’ agendas. 

_ They are operating outside and above the international law. Because that's the reality, if we don't respond to acts like these. _

And soon or later, reality had to kick in. 

* * *

 

When Wanda first saw the Secretary of State, she thought that he was a simple bureaucrat. He looked like one at least. But there was something in his eyes that casted some warning, a hidden madness, an obsession. Wanda saw that in his eyes when he crossed the door of the Compound and looked directly to her and Vision.

Both Nat and Tony were tense around the man, but they were good actors; they knew how to hide it. She knew they all felt the ghost of Dr. Banner hang heavily at the back of their minds whilst the new Secretary of State tried to play the facade of kindness with the Avengers  

“Five years ago... I had a heart attack. I dropped right in the middle of my backswing. Turned out it was the best round of my life, because after 13 hours of surgery and a triple bypass... I found something 40 years in the Army had never taught me: Perspective.” The ex general had reunited them in the conference room. 

Wanda had taken a seat with Vision as a technically active member, because even when her house arrest, she hadn’t officially stated that she was out of the field. The others were around the table, except for Tony, who was sitting away from the team with a grim expression in his face. “The world owes the Avengers an unpayable debt. You have fought for us... protected us, risked your lives... but while a great many people see you as heroes, there are some... who would prefer the word _ vigilantes. _ ”

“And what word would you use, Mr. Secretary?” Natasha asked him with a neutral expression, Wanda admired that control in certain ways. Not a single trait of hate would escape through the spy’s mask. 

“How about ‘dangerous’?” Ross glared at her harshly. “What would you call a group of US-based, enhanced individuals... who routinely ignore sovereign borders... and inflict their will wherever they choose and who, frankly, seem unconcerned about what they leave behind?” 

Everyone tensed up and the monitor in the conference room started playing, zooming maps over cities, as Ross continued impassively naming every single of them. For someone criticizing their lack of empathy, he showed little of his own as the images of crisis and loss played out.

“New York. Washington DC. Sokovia. Lagos.” Wanda looked down when the cameras of the last city showed a little girl in the rubble. Was that girl…? No, it wasn’t possible. 

“Okay. That's enough,” Steve said, also tense. Ross turned down the monitor and make a sign to the UN representative that had came with him. The man passed him a thick document. 

“For the past four years you've operated with unlimited power and no supervision. That's an arrangement the governments of the world can no longer tolerate. But I think we have a solution,” he said, putting the document in the table. 

Wanda took it. The thing was thicker than that of the up to date Collins dictionary Steve insisted on having. 

Rhodey made a gesture with his hand and she passed it to him while the Secretary kept talking. “The Sokovia Accords. Approved by 117 countries. It states that the Avengers shall no longer be a private organization. Instead, they'll operate under the supervision of a United Nations panel, only when and if that panel deems it necessary.”

“The Avengers were formed to make the world a safer place.” Steve answered “I feel we've done that.” Wanda found herself warily looking across to him and catching Tony's eye in the process.

“Tell me Captain: where are Thor and Banner right now?” The ex-general asked coldly. Wanda saw Tony's lip curl in response to that just under where his hand was hiding his mouth. “If I misplaced a couple of 30 tonne nukes you bet there would be consequences.” He walked around placing himself in the front of the table.

“So, there are contingencies,” Rhodey said coolly. 

“Three days from now, the UN meets in Vienna to ratify the Accords.” Wanda saw Steve glancing at Tony with a betrayed expression and couldn't help but roll her eyes. Now he was surprised? Nat had been trying to talk him about it for an entire month. “Talk it over.”

“And if we come to a decision you don't like?” Natasha asked Ross. The man smirked. 

“Then you retire.” The spy’s eyes were cold as they followed the man’s departure from the room. 

They were gathered in the kitchen to discuss it after that. Wanda stayed with Vision, who seemed to be the one least likely to start a fight. Tony just stayed on the sofa with Nat with a hand over his face. She knew last night had been rough for him. He had gone to a demonstration in the MIT and apparently Potts had cancelled without giving him much prior notice. To make matters worse, a woman ambushed him, blaming him for the death of her son. 

“I thought she had a gun in her purse,” her husband had said with a humorless laugh. 

“She could have. How would we know at this point?” There had been no words to get what happened out of his head, and what could she had said to calm him down anyway? There was no escape of what had happened in Sokovia, for both of them, though at least this time he had returned home in one piece. 

“Secretary Ross has a Congressional Medal of Honor which is one more than you have,” she overheard Rhodes telling Sam. 

“So let's say we agree to this thing. How long is it gonna be before they LoJack us like a bunch of common criminals?” the Sam retorted.

“Depends of how you go with the odds. Who do you think that the president is going to listen to? A man that he views as a hero or a retired lieutenant that goes around flying in a bird metal suit? We have nothing in our favor now thanks to you all and your… Private missions.” Rhodey glances at Steve who was, apparently, reading the document that Ross had left. 

_ I doubt that he can understand everything without a lawyer helping. That thing doesn’t seem like a Harlequin novel.  _   


“117 countries want to sign this. 117, Sam, and you're just like, ‘No, that's cool. We got it.’” Rhodes said sarcastically and Sam flushed with anger. 

“How long are you going to play both sides?!” 

“How is it playing both sides to listen to the people that don’t wants us there?” Wanda spat, tired of the argument. “Have you being listening to the news lately? We are operating outside and above international law.” 

“Neither Lagos or Washington were normal operations, Wanda,” Sam waved his hand and she stood up, furious.

“Are you saying that we should not face consequences because we decided the circumstances were special?” Sam opened his mouth and then closed it. Wanda glared at him with disgust. “You can word it in another way and say that the end justifies the means.” 

“Wanda-,” Steve started to say but Vision cleared his throat -he could do that?- and spoke with clear voice. 

“I have an equation,” he paused to see if they were going to let him speak before continuing. “In the 8 years since Mr. Stark announced himself as Iron Man, the number of known enhanced persons has grown exponentially. And during the same period, the number of potentially world-ending events has risen at a commensurate rate.” 

“Are you saying it's our fault?” Steve asked, offended. 

“I'm saying there may be a causality,” The android stated calmly. “Our very strength invites challenge. Challenge incites conflict. And conflict... breeds catastrophe. Oversight... Oversight is not an idea that can be dismissed out of hand.” 

Tony tried to talk about the the boy that had died in Sokovia, to give some perspective. Wanda clenched her fists as she recalled how many letters they had found and read, how many people cursed the Avengers for existing no matter how many they saved. She had been one of them, after all. 

“Tony,” Steve began with his ‘disappointed’ glare, “someone dies on your watch, you don't give up.” 

“Who said we're giving up?” Tony spat coolly. 

“We are if we're not taking responsibility for our actions. This document just shifts the blames.” 

“I'm sorry. Steve. That... That is  _ dangerously _ arrogant. This is the United Nations we're talking about. It's not the World Security Council, it's not SHIELD, it's not  _ HYDRA, _ ” Rhodey said but Steve shook his head as if they weren’t getting a point. 

“And how exactly are we shifting the blame when the panel would put measures if we screw up?” Wanda resorted. 

“Because it's run by people with agendas and agendas change.” 

“You are the last person in this room that has the right to criticize that,” Wanda hissed at him. Had anything of what she said after Lagos an impact on him? Or they were just words in deaf ears?

“Changing is not lethal, Cap.” Tony said walking towards them. “Most of us wouldn’t be here if we wouldn’t have changed. When I realized what my weapons were capable of in the wrong hands, I  _ shut it down _ and stop manufacturing.” 

“Tony, you _ chose _ to do that. If we sign this, we surrender our right to choose. What if this panel sends us somewhere we don't think we should go? What if there is somewhere we need to go, and they don't let us?” 

“And how is that any different than what  _ you _ did?” Wanda spat. “How is this any different of you telling us to going to a place that we don’t want to or we’re not ready for or we don’t have the resources to go to? How is this different from Lagos?” 

“Wanda, please, you can’t let your feelings rule your judgment,” Steve sighed, leaving the document on the tea table. “We may not be perfect, but the safest hands are still our own.” 

“No, you’re not listening what I am saying. What  _ you  _ think that is good for the people doesn’t mean that is what is best for them. More than one hundred countries are telling you stop and you are claiming that you don’t have a choice but not listen to them. You  _ have _ a choice,” Wanda continued.

She spotted Rhodes face from across the table and he smiled proudly at her. “You took the words right out of my mouth,” he said.

Wanda looked at Steve right in the eyes. He held her furious gaze stubbornly, unable to change his mind. She didn’t care. She didn’t have the patience or the hope or idealism that had once held her feelings of friendship towards him anymore. She was done. 

“You said that they took our right to choose,” the witch said coolly. “They didn’t. You have a choice: Sign or retire. And that is the choice that I am making now. Consider me now just a  _ consultant _ for the Avengers. If an alien invasion comes, I will help. But the rest?” Wanda looked around to Sam and to Natasha, who had a neutral expression but in the corner of her mouth there was the little start of a smile. “I am not entering countries that don’t want me to fit  _ your  _ agenda. This is not what I wanted, this is not what I learned from my mistakes.” 

The truth was if that old Wanda that survived hunger and protested in the streets because external conflicts would have met Steve, she wouldn’t have been his friend.

She probably would have killed him.

“I’m done,” she said. When she gave a last glance to Tony she was pleased to see a small, proud smile on his face.

* * *

 

 

“So, what is the verdict?” The witch asked her husband later that evening. She was combing her hair in front of her dressing table. Tony sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“Steve thinks I’m a bad influence on you.”  

“Seriously?” 

“Seriously. You did well out there. Platypus swears you took the words right out of his mouth. Although I know Rhodey, he probably would have said something rude about Steve being arrogant, too.”  A twitch of a smile begun at Tony’s lips. 

“He wouldn't be wrong,” Wanda murmured, resentment coloured her tone darkly.

“No, he wouldn’t,” Tony answered simply.  

“So, everyone agreed to sign?” 

“Me, Nat, Rhodey and Vision? Yes. Sam, I think, is going to retire. I don’t know about Steve, he left before we finished talking.” Tony started to pack a little bag with spare clothes.

“He _ left? _ ” Outraged, Wanda turned around the mirror in the dressing table. 

“Hmm, I think he had a personal matter. Peggy Carter appears to have died from what Nat told me.” Tony’s face twitched minutely once he had given that news before his face appeared to close off.

“His girlfriend way back when? Did you know her?” 

“Not at all. But my dad and her were friends… In some age I guess. What she saw in him I don’t know. I think I heard my aunt or Jarvis mentioning her. But I never met anyone my dad worked with at SHIELD until Fury. Howard didn’t care to introduce me, sadly.” Tony’s lip curled and she raised an eyebrow at the obvious bitterness she could hear in his voice.

“What are you going to do?” 

“Nat is going to accompany Steve to London and then she will meet me in Vienna for the UN conference. I will inform them of your retirement. Vision will stay here with you. I don’t trust Ross close to him.” Tony finished to close his bag and kneeled before caressing her cheek. “Will you be okay?”    

“I will, as alright as I can be.” Her voice lowered, before she mirrored the gesture on his face and gave him a short kiss on the lips. ”I want to go home after this, I don’t care if I can’t get out.” 

“We’ll see, darling. We’ll see.” 

  
  


* * *

 

 

Spending her time with Vision wasn’t bad since the android was so strongly interested in food. He seemed now to be trying to cook Eastern European dishes, to ‘lift her spirits’, he said.  

“Spirits lifted,” she commented trying to not taste too much of the soup. 

If Vision would have been human, he probably would have blushed. “In my defense, I haven't actually ever... eaten anything before, so…” 

“May I?” Wanda asked stepping to the kitchen and and stopping his babbling. 

“Please. Wanda?” 

“Hmm?”

“No one dislikes you, Wanda.” The woman frowned and kept stirring the spoon with a smile. 

“Thanks.” 

“Oh, you're welcome,” Vision said, but then seemed to notice that what he said was too literal. “No, it's a... involuntary response in their amygdala. They can't help but be afraid of you.” 

“Are you?” Wanda asked. Why wouldn’t he after all? He knew that she had ripped Ultron’s vibranium heart from his chest. 

“My amygdala is synthetic, so…” he shrugged and Wanda laughed. 

“You don’t have to use scientific facts to cheer me up, Viz, I know what I did and why they are afraid of me.” She looked down at the Paprikash. She understood why but it didn’t mean that it hurt any less. “The public and the press, I feel like at times they talk about me like I’m not human.-” 

Vision smiled and raised an eyebrow at her almost as if he was bemused at her word choice. “You know what I mean. Like I’m not one of them, now that I have got powers. That they have made me into some weapon. It’s horrible. At times I pity myself… But then I force myself to remember how I got these powers and how I honed them.” 

She felt her eyes sting at the memory of how Hydra would put the failed experiments in front of her and tell her to practice with them. “I am disgusted with what I was then. I let my misdirected anger and grief consume me and turn me into something else….”

“You are not that person now, you’ve grown beyond that. It will take time but eventually the world will see what I and Mr. Stark do.”

She blinked and looked up at from the pot to him. “And how do you see me?” 

“As a brave person,” the android said shrugging. “Any equation tells me that a coward would have just ran of her responsibilities and let other take the blame for her. But here you are. You are repenting; that is what they will see… With time.” 

Wanda smiled, hoping that her friend was right.

 

* * *

 

 

“Wanda, you need to see this.” Vision’s voice sounded in speakers of the living room and broke her out of the book she was reading. 

“What?” Vision passed through the wall and turned on the TV. The news were showing the UN center in Vienna. It was on fire. 

“Friday?!” Wanda choked out looking at the TV were the reporter was telling that it was an attack apparently perpetrated by the Winter Soldier. 

“I am communicating with Mr. Stark right now, ma’am. Don’t panic,” the AI said calmly and seconds later, Tony’s voice came through the speakers. 

“Wanda?” Relief went through her body when she heard his voice. He was okay,  _ he was okay _ . 

“What happened? Are you guys alright? They are saying that Barnes-” 

“It’s okay, we are okay. We got lucky,” he said sighing. Wanda could hear Nat’s voice in the background and also the sounds of sirens and screams. “Is Steve at home?” 

“Steve?” 

“Nat just talked to him but we don’t know if he still in London. If Barnes is really involved on this he maybe-”

“Will do something impulsive?” Wanda finished for him, pressing her lips in a line. “No, he is not here.”

“Dammit. Alright this is a mess. We’ll see what we could do. Try to call him, alright? Ross is already over us for this. But lay low, please. Gods knows what kind of excuse he will make to the panel against us.”

Wanda took a deep breath. He was right, but that didn’t mean that she liked to be left behind. “Okay, I will try to contact Steve. Take of yourself.” 

“Always.” Wanda could hear the self despicable smile in his voice. She hung up and immediately tried to call Steve. He didn’t answer. Hours later, the news showed Bucharest, apparently ravaged by Captain America  running renegade with the Winter Soldier. Wanda buried her face in her hands when she saw the destroyed bridge and sat with Vision, who had a thoughtful expression on his face. 

“So, I was right,” he whispered. 

“About what?” 

“Catastrophe.”  

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **AmbitiousWitch:** This chapter was actually going to cover the Airport fight too, but we decided to cut it here because it was becoming quite long and it would result in less impact. 
> 
> And if somebody is asking: Yes, we are going to make _Infinity War_ here. Yes, I saw it, Doodlegirl is still in process about it but she knows how the plot goes. I actually liked the movie quite a lot, at least is better than CW. But to respect thee people that still hasn't watched it, I ask you guys to _not_ post spoilers here until we have at least two weeks ahead of the movie relish. 
> 
> If anyone wants to talk about how the story is going or the movie itself, you can go to my blog [here.](https://ambitious-witch.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Okay! Thank you all for your support! Let us know what you think!


	13. Catastrophe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **AmbitiousWitch:** Music for this chapter, for the penultime scene: [_Beautiful Lie_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9BL59uiAz8&t=0s&list=PLBKadB95sF44vjNzNABcYoF_7ae6lAgJM&index=2) of Batman VS Superman. I know it's an irony to use a DC song for Marvel fanfic, but to be honest: this soundtrack is far better than Civil War's.

Vision tried really hard to distract Wanda in the next hours. However, the more time passed, the more bad news they got from Steve’s crusade. The last call that she received had been from Natasha who told her that Steve had left the place when they were staying in Berlin along with Bucky Barnes. Apparently, Barnes had gone berserk again and attacked and killed another bunch of people, including herself and Tony. But the spy assured Wanda that they hadn’t got badly hurt excepting some bruises. 

Vision seemed to get tired of Wanda walking around the Compound in circles and offered to do different things after lunch. Like watching movies or explain to him what she was writing. The witch didn’t know if her friend was deliberately trying to mess with her when he choose _The Bicentennial Man_ and I _, Robot_ to watch. She had looked at him oddly only to laugh later when he answered that he may not be alive in the same way as her but he still had a sense of humor. 

Watching  _ I, Robot _ made her slightly uncomfortable, especially after Ultron. How many times had he said that everything that he was doing was for the good of the planet? And she had just believed every word that he had said without questioning because if that got her close to her revenge, why did it matter?

Vision watched the Bicentennial Man with a strange sense of… Nostalgia? He commented to her that he didn't understand why the title character just didn't embrace his identity as an android and was so determined to be a human. 

“I guess he wanted to be with the woman he loved,” Wanda said. “She would have died and he would have stayed alive forever.”

“I guess it makes sense.” Vision rested his chin on his hand. “But I never had a problem with who I was. Neither do I think that Jarvis did.”

Wanda looked across at him and gave a small smile. “I’m glad,” she said. She gave him a squeeze on the shoulder before a muffled bang of an explosion came from outside. 

Alarmed, she rose to her feet and rushed to the window. Vision gilded beside her and frowned at the explosions outside.

“What is it?” Wanda murmured. Had someone come to attack them in the Compound?

“Stay here, please,” Vision said whilst he disappeared through the window to investigate.

Shortly after Vision left, Wanda heard several soft footsteps behind her and she reacted on instinct and used her gifts to fling the knife on the side right into the intruder's face -

But then right at the last minute, she caught herself because that wasn’t an intruder, that was her friend Clint.

Wide-eyed, she froze and didn’t dare to move the knife herself in case she accidentally hurt him.

Seemingly sensing her fear, he reached up with one finger to move the weapon from his face whilst he gave her an impossibly easy smile.

“Guess I shoulda knocked.”

“Oh my god,” Wanda gasped as she ran to him. “What are you doing here?”

“Disappointing my kids,” Clint said, as he shot arrows to both sides of the room and destroyed the cameras. “I'm supposed to go waterskiing. Cap needs our help. Come on.” He took Wanda’s hand as if she was a child that he felt like he had to guide. 

“I can’t get off here just because!” she snapped and lifted her sleeves to show the blinking bracelet. “I’m under house arrest, remember?” 

Clint huffed and kneeled before he took one of his knives and stuck it in the clasp of the device. Wanda jumped and had to contain herself to not throw him across the room. 

“Are you crazy?!” 

“Clint.” Vision’s voice made the archer jump. “You should not be here.” 

“Really? I retire for, what, like five minutes, and it all goes to shit,” Clint retorted. 

“Please consider the consequences of your actions,” Vision warned firmly.

“Okay.” Clint’s eyes flicked around the room. “They’re considered. Okay, we gotta go.”

Then without warning, he set off an EMP and disabled Vision. Wanda looked horrified at her friend held in that force field and clenched her fists when Clint again took her arm. She shook his hand off and the archer scoffed. 

“I had no choice Wanda, he wasn’t going to let us go,” Clint insisted. At Wanda’s hesitance, he clasped the tops of her arms. “We can’t let Cap down.”

“I told you that I can’t leave,” Wanda snapped. “You don’t have any idea of the kind of problems that I am going to have when the notice that the bracelet doesn’t work. The police must be getting here now!”

“All the more reason to go,” Clint said. Although his initial bark was frustrated he softened his voice with his next sentence. “We will protect you.”

“Your ‘protection’ or Steve’s is going to get me involved in more deaths,” the witch spat. “I can’t do whatever the hell I want just because you say so. I was almost charged with manslaughter!” 

“And you are going to do better by staying here and playing the housewife for Stark?”

“Shut the fuck up-” Wanda snarled before she was rudely cut off.

“Look, you wanna mope, you can go to high school. You wanna make amends, you get off your ass.”

Her lips initially parted in shock at the audacity and condescension of that statement before masking her expression quickly in one she hoped would seem like determination. Wanda knew that Clint was like Cap in the regard that she couldn’t budge him if he made his mind up on something. Even if she overpowered the archer here, that still left the problem of Steve, who was compromised and unpredictable.

She would have to go with him and stop the problem from within.

“Shit.” Clint murmured when Vision freed himself from the force field. Wanda took a deep breath when the android subdued the ex-assassin without effort. 

“Clint, you can't overpower me,” Vision said holding his arm around the archer’s neck. 

“I know I can’t,” Clint replied with a smug smile. “But she can.” 

Wanda froze in her place. Was he suggesting that she should attack Vision? Vision that had shown nothing but respect or consideration to her? Vision who treated her like an adult and understood her struggle with not belonging to a society that looked at her different? 

But she had to play her part. Wanda swallowed heavily whilst twirling her powers in a threatening manner around her hands. “Vision, that's enough. Let him go. I'm leaving.”

“I can’t let you,” he said, giving her a sad look. He thought that Clint had convinced her. 

“Listen to me. Please,” she said, looking his eyes. “If the situation is so big that they need  _ me _ then they will need you too.” Wanda winked her left eye. “ _ Please _ . Trust me.” 

Vision narrowed his eyes and a little smile formed in the corner of his lips. Slowly, he left Clint go as the witch made a show of pooling her powers around her hands.

Suddenly Wanda intercepted Clint’s arm when he tried to strike Vision. 

“Don’t touch him. He knows what I could do so he isn’t going to fight us,” the witch hissed. “We are leaving.” 

She gave Vision a last apologetic look before leaving with Clint, but her friend smiled and nodded behind the archer’s back. 

 

 

* * *

 

 

The trip to San Francisco and later Germany was suffocating. Wanda tried to meditate and think about the minds around them and not on Clint’s constant dogpiling on Tony. She didn't know what Steve had told the archer but the word  _ internment _ wasn't a term to define what her situation had been with Vision at all. 

Clint picked up another supposed superhero of San Francisco. A man that seemed to sleep himself on the way as preparation for the battle. He didn't notice Wanda much at all and the little he talked, he just said how excited he was to be an Avenger. 

Meanwhile, her mind went to Tony’s brash comments the first time she was recruited; about how now anyone could be an Avenger while he had to be submitted to a psychological evaluation. She had thought this unfair and untrue at the time since she had been prideful of her gifts and bolstered by Clint and Steve’s kindness and support of her. She thought she was finally a part of a family again. However she now seeing the rushed recruitment of a random guy that had fought with Sam once, she realised how little she had always meant to the ‘family’ of the Avengers. 

“I heard about you too, you’re great,” the random man, Scott, supplied awkwardly. “Despite your poor choice in men.”

“Can’t say he’d be too happy with me for this,” she replied. Wanda’s smile tightened. “I hope it’s worth it.”

“He doesn't seem happy unless he sees you chained and behind bars,” Clint grunted, winning a death glare from Wanda. 

They were received by the rest of the team in Germany. Cap barely talked about the supposed threat and Wanda started to ask herself if Clint really knew in what he was getting himself into. He also confirmed that they were entirely outside the law now. 

_ Because what we did in Lagos was totally legal.  _ Wanda glared at him bitterly. He hugged her and said that he was happy that she had ‘seen the reason’ and wasn't ‘blinded by her feelings’ anymore. 

She gritted her teeth and got inside the van to change her clothes for her body armor, pulled her hair in a tight braid, and sighed. If the confusing things Steve had said were true then they had to reach Siberia quickly, but why not simply call Natasha to get them a transport or get the UN to agree to the mission if the whole world was in danger? It seemed that Steve’s option of stealing a plane was just to demonstrate that how he could do things by himself. That he could lead by himself without help, that people followed him to break the law without thinking twice about their own lives or their families. That he, because he was Captain America, was the only one who could inspire people to do good. 

The worst thing of all was that she couldn’t contradict him because she used to follow him in that exact way.

A voice started to sound from the PA’s system of the airport: they were evacuating. Sam said Tony’s name which made Wanda inhale sharply. Had Vision told him about the plan or did he just believe that she had followed Steve like a mindless idiot? At least the civilians would be safe. 

She spent the rest of the time in which the two teams talked in autopilot. Her eyes slid from Tony to Nat to the strange man in the cat suit. Natasha was looking at her and her teammates with a confused expression. So, she didn’t know the situation, either? Wanda eyed at Tony who looked tired and desperate, but he wasn’t looking at her. He was furiously trying to talk with Steve. Ross had given them thirty six hours to bring them in or there would be violence. 

Steve choose exactly that. 

The fight didn’t start as something controlled. Wanda tried with all her might to keep up the pretense that she was fighting Vision. He wasn’t really hurting her but she had to pretend for the sake of getting her own team separated so the others could get them. 

Steve urged them to run to the Quijet but Tony stopped, Wanda wished she could see past the Iron Man suit to his face and again wondered if he actually knew that she hadn’t broken her promises. 

“Wanda, I think you will be the one responding to the police in the Compound,” Tony said in a lighthearted tone. Clint scoffed. 

“You don’t like Wanda unless she’s a pretty trophy for you to lock up,” Clint sneered, “How does it feel that she freed herself from your imprisonment?”

“I am not the one that made her break the law because I was bored of playing golf, Barton,” Tony bit back in a malicious voice. The mask then turned to her. 

Clint gave him a sarcastic smile. “Well, I played 18, I shot 18. Just can't seem to miss.” He shot two arrows to Tony, one was deflected, the other exploded in a car carrying bagon. Wanda watched with horror how the cars started to go down over the Iron Man suit. She desperately tried to divert them but one of them fell directly on Tony’s arm before she could get it. 

“Are you out of your mind?!” she shrieked to Clint. “We’re not here to kill any of them.” 

He turns to her, retorting, “Oh, please, the suit is protecting him. I know you care for him out of some twisted Stockholm Syndrome or whatever. But he won’t stop. We can’t afford to pull punches.”

“Then you better follow your own advice,” Wanda said coolly and took some steps away when the Black Widow appeared and threw a punch right in the center of Clint’s face.

“Laura called me,” she heard the spy spit angrily at the archer. “You better have an explanation for this Mr. I Am Retired.” 

Wanda left them to tire each other out. She could catch Sam and the others but the conversation between Steve and Scott made her stop midway. 

“I do it all the time. I mean once… in a lab. Then I passed out. I'm the boss. I'm the boss. I'm the boss. I'm the boss. I'm the boss!” 

She wasn’t left wondering what the random superhero could do for long when he grew into the size of a building. Both Iron Man and War Machine went around him when he threw a truck to the man in the cat suit and almost crushed Natasha in the process. 

She intercepted Sam trying to aim at Rhodey while he was busy with the giant and forced him down with telekinesis. It made the pilot look at her as she was crazy, but Wanda pointed Steve and Barnes running to Quinjet. 

Sam seemed to be fooled by her and rushed in the direction of Bucky and Steve. She used a minimal amount of power to see hints of his plan and was pleased to note that he would take off first and then Steve and Bucky would follow.

“You wanna get to them… you gotta go through me,” The giant said trying to grab Tony, but suddenly a scream was torn out of Scott’s mouth and he grabbed his head. It was one of the most horrible sounds that Wanda had to hear in her life, all the eyes were on her, but she shook her head and started to run while the image of the giant going to a normal size and Tony calling for an ambulance filled her ears. 

Wanda took another route, getting to the Quinjet while Vision made the tower fall. She had to stop it falling all and was left gasping when it ended. It hadn’t fallen all, not enough to stop Steve and Barnes from making it to the hanger. 

“I thought you didn’t want to break the rules,” a hoarse voice said behind her. Nat was disheveled and her face had a tell-tale redness of a soon to be a big bruise from the fight but otherwise, she was unharmed. Wanda sighed in relief. 

“I am not,” she said, putting her hands up as a sign of friendship. “I am here to do the right thing, Nat. I will stop them.” 

“You can’t stop them” the spy whispered, her eyes glassy. “I have been trying to stop them for two days. We tried to stop them in Bucharest. You saw them, it was a catastrophe.” 

“What are you-?” Wanda slowly lowered her hands as she suddenly figured out the woman’s intention. “You’re planning to betray them-”

“If you love them as I do then you’ll understand that I don’t want anybody to get hurt.” Natasha aimed her taser but the shot passed Wanda and she heard a groan of pain. The man in the cat suit - she hadn’t heard him approach - was down and Steve and Barnes were in front of them. 

“Thank you, Nat.” Steve murmured but the spy didn’t look at him, she just kept holding the man back with her normally fatal widow bite blasts. What kind of enhancement did he have to get such punishment and not die? Dumbfounded, Wanda could just look at the scene until Steve turned to her. “It’s time to go, Wanda.” 

“I will tell Tony that you had no choice. He’ll forgive you.” Natasha assured her and Wanda bit her lips. 

“I hope you will forgive me too,” she replied and pushed Steve against the wall with a wave of red magic. That distracted Natasha and Wanda took the advantage to hold her to the ground with chains of red light. 

“What are you doing?” Steve yelled, shocked.

“You told me that I had to do something if someone was compromised,” Wanda said to Natasha. “But I will keep my promise, I won’t touch your mind.” Her voice deepened when she heard the click of a gun. “You better stand down, sergeant.” 

“We have no time for this, kid,” Barnes said aiming his gun at her. “The man that controlled me yesterday will have six more soldiers for tomorrow.” 

“I am sure that if that is true, in this two days, you had enough time to make a call, sergeant. Now, stand  _ down _ ,” she hissed as her eyes glowed red. There was something in that man that she didn’t like. Maybe it was the fact that Steve had gone to such extremes to save him, extremes that no one else on the team would have been worth and that this mission seemed to be an excuse. Or maybe he was the embodiment of all that she hated of her old self. 

It would be better if she put him to sleep, it wouldn’t hurt him… 

But the man in the cat suit got up, distracting her and making her drop her teammates from her grip. Then she heard Natasha calling Steve’s name. 

The hit was unexpected and painful, so painful. 

Wanda had seen Steve throwing that damned shield around hundreds of times during training but she had never felt the impact on herself. Her mouth opened in a drowned scream and she swore that she could feel her bones breaking. 

She fell and clasped her own torso while Steve passed thoughtlessly by her. Natasha knelt next to her and held her arm. The pain made her sight go blurry for a moment, but she saw them, she saw Barnes and Steve going to the Quinjet, she couldn’t fail her mission, she couldn’t fail to her team. 

She tried to ignore the pain, tried to focus her powers and a red wire went directly to Barnes' head. 

The result was neither was she expected. 

She wasn’t really focused, so her mind connected with the soldier’s shattered one, it was only for a few seconds and anyway, Steve took his friend and got him in the Quinjet while the king tried to chase them in vain. Wanda felt Natasha’s arms were around her but she couldn’t see her. She could only see a road and a car crashing against a three, then the shine of that mental arm, the blood in the face of an old man that had eyes that she knew so well and the pleas for help of a woman before she died.

Distantly she felt her gifts rush away from his mind with her failing strength. The pain built and in an effort to numb her, her powers turned inward. 

 

* * *

 

 

“Do my powers protect me like Pietro’s?” Wanda had asked once to Dr. List, in the castle, just after ‘testing’ them in some subjects. That morning she had learned something new. If she and her subject had something, a memory or a likeness, in their minds, it was more easy for her. 

“You can use them to protect yourself of course. Project shields and the rest,” the Hydra scientist had replied rubbing his chin. “But in the case of physiological enhancements? No, I am afraid that your body is pretty much the same strength as any other woman of your constitution.” 

_ I know that _ . Wanda slowly opened her eyes, hissing at the white light. A hospital room, she didn’t have idea why that memory had crossed her mind, except as a cruel reminder of her own unconscious that her body wasn’t a fast healer. She couldn’t move from the pain. Her torso was bandaged. The hit of the shield had certainly broke some of her ribs. 

But her team? What had happened to them? Had the giant man been taken down? Had they intercepted Steve and Barnes in time? She tried to get up but fell back with a cry of pain. Wanda heard movement and looked next to her finding Tony half asleep in a chair. Had he been there all the time? Was her mind really that dizzy? He blinked at her a couple of times and got up forcing her back on the bed with one hand. 

“Hey, hey, everything is alright, darling. You are safe.” His right arm was in a sling and he had a big bruise under his eye, but it didn’t seem worse than Nat’s…

“What happened?” Wanda asked, her voice hoarse. 

“Scott Lang had a malfunction with the suit. For what I know, he might not walk again. Clint and Sam are in the Raft.” 

“The Raft?” No matter how angry she had been at Clint, the Raft wasn’t a place for them, it had been made to hold being like Abomination. “But they are not enhanced-” 

“I know, I know. Ross seems to be parroting that is a preventive prison but for reglament, he can’t hold them a long time. I don’t know, I didn’t pay attention I thought that you... and Rhodey-” He cut himself clenching the bridge of his nose. 

“What happened to him?” 

“He fell.” 

“ _ Fell? _ ”

“I- We were chasing Rogers and Barnes after they took the Quinjet. I left Vision with Lang while the ambulance was coming but Jim ordered him away. Vision was distracted, it was friendly fire.” Wanda covered her mouth in horror. Poor Vision had tried so hard avoiding conflict and at the end, he had being one of the results of it. And Rhodes…

“He is surgery now,” Tony said, predicting her question. “He was conscious when I left him, he told me that I had to check on you.”  

“I’m fine.”

“Rogers threw his shield at you.” 

“He would have done it to anyone that was in his way. Natasha-” 

“Was planning to let them go,” Tony cut her off coolly. Wanda pressed her lips in a line. 

“Please don’t be mad at her.” 

“Too late.” 

“She did it because she thought the fight would stop. I betrayed them, too,” Wanda said, feeling a bitter feeling in her mouth. Her mind was blurry, but she was sure that she hadn’t touch Natasha’s. Even with that, maybe it was different with Tony; Natasha had told her that it had taken her more than year to win his trust again. Maybe this time it was forever? “Where is she now?” 

“I don’t know. We fought. She left after I told her that King T’Challa may press charges against her.” 

“Will he do the same with me?” 

“No, I told him that you were there because I asked you, same to Ross.” Tony sighed and got up from the chair. 

“You didn’t have to- What is it?” Wanda leaned up and saw Tony frown whilst he looked at a hologram on his watch. 

“Dammit.” He hissed and turned at her. “I have to go.” 

“What is it?” Wanda asked again, alarmed. 

“It seems that Steve’s story wasn’t just a front after all. I have to talk to Ross if he wants to cooperate or the others. If this is true, then maybe he will need help.” He bent over her and pressed a kiss on her forehead. “I will leave Vision with you in case they try something anyway.” 

“Wait, don’t go alone,” Wanda tried to get up but the motion just made her let out a cry of pain. 

“I will be fine, if he is so desperate to eliminate this treat then he will have to work with me.” Tony cupped her face on his hands. “You have done enough today.

“No, please, please, you can’t go to them.” Why? What was that urgency? There was something that told her that she couldn’t let him go. Something, something… What had happened? 

What was that hollow feeling inside her chest? 

“I will be fine, I promise you.” He tried to smile at her but Wanda kept shaking her head and trying to stop him. Even when the door of her room was closed, she couldn’t stop the feeling that another catastrophe would happen. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **AmbitiousWitch:** Sorry for the delay, guys. It hasn't been a good month for me. There was a crazy stalking us because of this fic on my blog. And then it seems that they are other crazies commenting and stalking in comments that I did in Team Iron Man fics years ago. And there is the horrible Star Wars fandom that has done one of their specialties: traumatize innocent actors. A classic. 
> 
> Ugh. 
> 
> Well, I hope you like this chapter. By the way, I also published an original story called [The Curse of The Gifted](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14386893). If you like my stories and fantasy, drop by. 
> 
> Also, I always forget asking this but: did anyone here watched the trailer that we made for this fic? It's in the summary box. If you did, what do you think? 
> 
> See you all next chapter!


	14. Dual Revelations

Wanda crashed into a deep sleep after Tony left. The fight in the airport and the sudden panic of seeing him leaving had taken its toll on her. It was better to sleep and heal her body rather than being stressed and just making things worse.  

Vision stayed in the hospital with her, and hour by hour he brought updates about Rhodes’ condition. The guilt in his eyes was heartbreaking. Her poor friend. When he thought about experimenting with emotions for the first time, he probably hadn’t imagined getting his mentor and friend paralyzed. 

Her dreams were full of confusion. Images of what happened that afternoon mixed with those she had taken from Barnes’ mind. Nothing made sense. Faces were mixed and twisted by that poor tortured mind. But she knew there was  _ something _ that she had to take from them, something she had seen before becoming unconscious.

She tried to talk with Friday about how Tony was doing, but the AI was almost disconnected and could only notify her that Tony flying through a storm was the cause of the interference. 

However, about half an hour later the communicator was blinking with a red light and suddenly Friday’s voice came out in a frantic shout. “No! Stop—” Wanda grabbed at the communicator with fumbling hands. 

“Friday?! Friday, what’s happening?” she demanded. Wanda received no answer. All her earlier fears returned sevenfold and she called for Vision. 

“What is it?” Her friend entered the room and Wanda handled him the device. He typed for a few seconds and Friday’s voice burst out in panic. 

“You  _ can’t  _ beat him hand to hand!” 

“Friday, what’s happening?” Vision asked firmly. “Friday?” There was only static on the other end of the comm. 

Wanda sat up in the bed. “What is happening? Who he can’t beat? The soldiers?” she thought aloud. Vision lifted a hand at her asking for silence. His face grew more serious as he typed in the communicator. 

“Friday?” 

“I lost contact with him,” the AI’s voice sounded bone chillingly scared, almost like that of a traumatized child.

“What?” Wanda spat and tried to get up but the rough movement made her hiss, holding her side. Despite this, she pushed the pain to the back of her mind and twisted to Vision. “Steve would provide backup to help deal with the soldiers if Tony was in danger. Wouldn’t he?” 

_ Steve wouldn’t be petty enough to let the Accords influence that, right? But if Barnes was involved… _ She frowned to herself _. Where on Earth did the idea that Barnes could be involved come from? There was no reason for the two soldiers and Tony  _ not  _ to fight together against Zemo and the other Super Soldiers… _

“I would have thought so,” the android said “But this concerns me. There shouldn’t ever be an occasion where Friday disconnects from the suit in a fight like this unless…”

“Unless what?” The most disturbed look slid over her friend’s face. It was a look Wanda didn’t think she would ever forget. Nonetheless, in her urgency, she pressed again. “Unless what, Vision?”

“Unless the Super Soldier in question knew where to hit.” Vision’s face hardened as he drew away. “I have to go.” 

Wanda’s eyes widened. Only one super soldier would know.  _ Steve. “Take me _ with you _.” _

“Wanda I don’t believe that’s wise— ” Vision voiced regretfully. “You are still injured—” 

Wanda shook her head and started to get up of the bed. “I won’t let you go alone, we are supposed to be a team—  _ Ugh! _ ” She fell to the floor holding her side.  _ Dammit.  _

Gently Vision helped her back on to the bed whilst Wanda gritted her teeth and used her powers to telekinetically support her side more than her hands could. Her heart still pounded in her chest but her breathing wasn’t quite so labored. She found with some satisfaction that using her telekinesis this way helped her mobility.

“I can still use my powers to support myself and move,” She hissed at him through barred teeth, refusing to mention the pain that still stabbed at her sides. Her abnormally sparking powers said it for her.

“Your focus would be diverted,” Vision reminded her sternly but carefully. “Captain Rogers has shown no hesitation to hurt you before. Instead of helping Mr. Stark you could get yourself and him more hurt or worse. I won’t let that happen.”

Vision drew away. Wanda tried to contact Friday again, but the AI remained silent. Her anxiety kept her awake as she once again counted the minutes, but it could only keep her there for so long. She’d worn herself down just in that minute or two of standing. When the exhaustion overwhelmed her, Wanda fell into a dreamless sleep. 

 

* * *

 

 

Vision was back, shaking her awake with a gentle hand. Wanda woke with a jerk nonetheless, all her worry returned at once.  Vision’s face contracted in a worried expression that made him seem years older. She became keenly aware that although passing out only seemed like moments ago, significant time had passed.

“Vision, did you find him? Is he—” The android raised his hand interrupting her and sat in the chair near her bed. 

“Please, sit up,” he said, taking a breath, Wanda did it, Vision knelt before her and took her hand talking slowly. 

“Vision, you are scaring me now. What happened? Did you find him?” 

“I found him,” Vision said bluntly, sighing and pressing his lips as if he didn’t find the words. Wanda got a feeling of _ deja vú, _ almost two years ago when Clint couldn’t tell her clearly that her brother had died. 

“Vision, please tell me once for all, if he is dead—” 

“He is not dead,” he cut her again. “He is being attended right now, but he will live if he survived all that time in the cold, he will...” 

Survived? What could have been so serious that surviving was a deemed as a possibility? The risk of the soldiers had been for their skills, not to the team but to the people that they could hurt. 

Unless she had been right and the soldiers weren’t the problem, at least not the ones in that base. 

“... But he will be alright if something the memories of Jarvis’s have told me is that the odds have been against Mr. Stark in many times.” 

“What happened to the soldiers?” she snapped. 

“Pardon me?” 

“The soldiers, Vision, those damn soldiers that Steve was so worried about. Were they dead? Did they killed Barnes and Steve and that is why you are not telling me if you found them too?” Wanda hated being angry at him, but he was talking in circles. 

Vision shook his head. “They weren’t any soldiers there, Wanda, nor the man that wanted to control them. I neither could find Captain Rogers or Sergeant Barnes in the area, just Mr. Stark, almost dead and the Captain’s shield. Either they escaped too or— “ 

“Or maybe they never existed, maybe it was all a trap to get them there.” But for  _ what?  _ “Maybe Tony tried to take them into custody and they fought him, but how could they possibly have left him almost dead— “

Then she remembered Friday's voice screaming that he couldn’t beat him hand to hand. Why was Tony even fighting them hand to hand, she had seen countless videos, his suits had missiles with them, if he was in danger he would have stopped them, unless...

“He wasn’t fighting back,” she murmured later, Vision frowned. “You know better than me how his suits work. He could take Thor and the Hulk with them, why would two super soldiers being a challenge?” 

“He was outnumbered—” 

“He was going easy on them,” the witch spat, “and even with that, he is still the one lying in a hospital bed while they walked free without looking back.” 

She didn’t know if her anger was really for solely Tony or also for herself. Both Steve and Barnes had walked away from more than just Tony now. Steve, had appointed himself Wanda’s “protector” when he thought Tony was using her had just dropped her the instant he had a lead on Barnes. And Barnes had unquestioningly aided Steve in wrecking an airport, walking away with more people injured by his hands. 

Was it really so surprising then that they had left Tony to die in the Siberian wastes just to save themselves? 

“Mrs. Stark?” 

“Yes, Friday?” Wanda had gone to the hospital’s dining room, the doctors had told her that she couldn’t lie down for a long time. 

“I have the footage of what happened to Boss, I think you should watch it, but I recommend you to go to your room first.” 

“Why?” Wanda murmured, this couldn’t be good. 

“I was distressed when I lost contact with Boss, ma’am, I don’t think you should be in public while watching this.” 

She did what the AI said, when Friday played the little what she had recorded until her connection with the suit had been broken, that little was enough. 

Wanda saw the doctor’s smug face when he admitted that he had been following the Avengers for a year. When he said he was Sokovian, she felt a bitter taste in her mouth. 

She saw Steve’s expression while he lied to her husband’s face and every angry breath that she took hurt more than the last. 

The video cut off with Steve’s bloody, angry face and the repeated  _ clanks _ of his shield against Tony’s face. 

_ They left him to die _ . That thought refused to stop echoing in her mind. They had left him to die of exposure in a frozen hell-hole. The fight was over. why not check on him? Why not contact someone, even anonymously, to ensure help would come? If Steve had only wanted to stop Tony, why had he broken his helmet and destroyed the arc reactor? 

Vision told her that she didn’t have the full story, but she didn’t think that she needed it. The truth was very simple: Steve knew, maybe for years, and he had said  _ nothing _ . He had lived under Tony’s roof and used his resources to find his parents killer without blinking. Tony had seen his parents die and lashed out, just like anyone would, just like  _ she _ had done. 

She could feel Tony’s anger while holding his hand in the hospital bed, even while he was still unconscious. She could feel the anger and the heartbreak as it was her own. 

  
  


* * *

 

 

_ Present day.  May 15, 2017. _

“What happened after that?” Ms. Walker asked her coldly. They were walking through Central Park two months since their first meeting. Mis. Walker seemed to have grew colder and serious in those weeks they had seen each other. They had met consistently once a week, but later the blonde woman seemed to have her mind on other matters. Wanda kept her mask on, smiling sadly. 

“We both went through physical therapy. Steve freed the others from The Raft and sent something that he believed was an apology,” she said through gritted teeth. “Rhodes… He didn’t walk again, but Tony worked for weeks from the hospital making bracers to him to walk…. We picked up pieces of what was left. I was…  _ Rewarded _ for my help in Leipzig and I could get out of the Compound. 

“Tony started to train a ward, an enchanted kid that spent his days punching robbers in edited pajamas. We crossed him when we were capturing an arms dealer. I started to train and learn about my powers with people that actually know about them,” she summarized. The next smile was genuine because even when they had tense moments at first, she really appreciated Stephen and Master Wong’s help.  

“And between all of this, when was the time that you attacked your husband again?” 

Wanda froze. How? When had she discovered it? She had omitted every detail that put her as the telepath, she changed events and situations. How—

“You maybe are good at lying, Mrs. Stark, but you aren’t good at hiding your facial expressions or body language. The way you speak is not the way of a concerned wife trying to help. It’s the mark of someone who is dripping with guilt,” Trish said with a cold smile. “Also, you should have given me the name of the attacker because I figured out quickly when you are the only one that can do things with your mind in this story.” 

Wanda looked down at her hands and took a deep breath. 

Trish wouldn’t let her take her time. “So?” 

“It was five months ago,” Wanda began, closing her eyes. “Steve and the others tried to capture a terrorist cell in Austria. It ended up worse thanks to them and we were sent to capture them,” Wanda laughed bitterly. “Tony had been avoiding anything that could lead us to them, but there was no choice. And when we found Steve’s crew, I had to make a choice. So I used my powers and put Tony to sleep and let them go.” 

Every word was more painful than the last because of the memory. “When I reached to him to wake him, he started to shake. A seizure. I panicked and when the help came, I ran away, I haven’t seen him since then.” 

“Why did you use your powers on his mind? Why not stopping him like you did with the Black Widow?” 

“Because I acted without thinking!” Wanda wrapped her arms around herself. “Because before that I had seen something. Magic works in different ways for everyone, Ms. Walker but it does exist.” She repeated the words that Master Wong had told her in her first lesson. ”And my powers were connected to something worse, something dangerous, so, we tried to discover what threats this could bring. 

“I found myself in the same position that my husband had been in, with a vision in my head that wouldn’t go and I didn’t know when or where would happen. But there was something I knew: that we might need those  _ fugitives _ . We needed more people not just the five of us.” 

Wanda couldn’t say anything about the Time Stone or what she had saw: everyone turning into ashes. Her own body, vanishing as it had never existed. “But the consequences of it have dragged me, Ms. Walker. I didn’t know what to do, not even when I thought that my husband would die by my own hands.” 

“But he didn’t.” 

“No, he didn’t,” Wanda let out a tearful laugh.”But I had promised him that I wouldn’t do it again. And if I couldn’t keep that promise because I thought that I was doing for the greater good, then would stop me of returning to be the woman that drowned a city in blood?” 

So, she had tried to find something greater than her, someone worse than her. Someone that could tell her that she still had any hope left. Because the thought of her powers breaking through Tony’s mind and her own voice saying herself that she had been doing it for the greater good wasn’t enough. She had tried to get stories from Trish in exchange of her own. 

“The only thing that is stopping you from achieving or doing anything - good or bad, Wanda - is yourself,” Trish said with a strange, almost fake smile and left.

What had happened to her? 

Maybe all of this had been a mistake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **AmbitiousWitch:** I am not gonna lie, this chapter was a pain in the ass. We both were busy and I had a massive writer's block. No mention that I am working in _The Curse of the Gifted_ quite a lot. 
> 
> But we are _finally_ out of the CW arc and we are also over with Trish's perspective in the present day scenes, now all the present day scenes will be in Wanda's POV. 
> 
> If it's still confusing: the unreliable narrator tag is for what is happening _in universe_ , that means, that inside of the story, Wanda was clearly lying a bit while she was telling her story to Trish, but what you read in her POV is true (take a guess that Wanda wouldn't tell Trish about how she had sex with Tony). Next chapter we are going to go more deeply about what she did and why her self-imposed exile, but I wanted to take Trish out the picture for a bit. If you ask why Trish is colder than her, it has to do more with Trish's own development in season 2 of JJ than Wanda herself. During the weeks that Wanda and she met happened many things and Trish is turning in a no-so-much innocent civilian character that she was in the prologue (SPOILER: She killed Jessica's mom and did a bunch of no-so-good-things to get superpowers). But I found it a good tool to play with Wanda's character and dilemma, anyway, that will be the next chapter. 
> 
> Anyway, see you next chapter.


End file.
